November 3, voting day, was full of excitement and hope. It was not until the next morning that all parents of Little Miami School District students realized that their children’s educational experience was truly going to change. Little Miami schools were officially put on a fiscal caution list because of the rejection of the 9.95-mill tax levy for the third time in less than a year. The rejection of this levy will result in the state strictly monitoring the school’s tight finances.
The district’s buildings will no longer be open to the community after school hours, and many cuts in the schools activities will be made. These cuts include shutting down school libraries and dropping many special classes that could help students plan for their future after high school.
Many of these cuts will also include music, art, and physical education classes, and the district will be starting a full-pay-to participate program for extracurricular activities.
Two of the Little Miami schools will be shut down, there will be a reduction in bus services, and more than eighty jobs will be lost.
The problems that are occurring because of the rejection of the November 2009 tax levy definitely hit home for my family and me. My brother is currently a student at Little Miami Junior High. He is in seventh grade and has all of high school ahead of him. He is very talented musically, and he was hoping to join the high school’s marching band; but the way things are looking it seems as though he will either have to pay a lot of money to participate or the marching band won’t exist for him and other students to take part in.
Also because of the reduction of bus services, it takes my brother forty-five minutes to get home when we only live five minutes away.
This is very discouraging to me because I was greatly involved in many extracurricular activities all throughout my high school career. Not only did I have fun being involved, but I also matured and took a lot out of the activities I was in. It makes me very sad to know that my brother’s high school career will not be lived to its fullest because of the lack of opportunities that the school will provide. I guess this is what our society has come to; people won’t vote to provide for our future generations but yet will vote for casinos to be built in our cities.