Eisenberg Elementary leaders relieved about budget news
With the shock of the Clark County School District’s yawning budget gap behind them, Eisenberg Elementary School is heaving a sigh of relief.
Eisenberg postponed its school organizational team meeting twice as it waited on the budget to be refigured after CCSD miscalculated its initial figures. It finally met Oct. 5, after school hours. The budget had come out the Friday before.
“It was actually more money than we anticipated,” principal Jamie McKee said of the amount the school learned it could keep. “So, everybody’s salary was (covered), and we were able to add money to ‘supplies and materials’ to help us through the year, and order textbooks and materials, pencils and crayons, everything you need to run a school. So, we ended up in pretty good shape.”
An elementary school’s budget is less complicated than those of middle and high schools, which have elective classes and STEM programs, McKee said. An elementary school budget consists mostly of staff salaries.
That said, “There are guidelines. We can’t do something like put 40 kids into a first-grade class to get another position or something crazy like that,” she said.
There was even enough in the budget to pay support staff who worked on special programs such as literacy, math and science nights.
The SOT meeting included other budget-related items. The school’s PTA was planning various fundraisers — Chuck E. Cheese’s night, selling candy, hosting a Christmas shop — for when classes planned special projects not covered in the budget.
Should a school have to come up with innovative ideas to fill its PTA coffers?
“In a perfect world, no,” said Tina Cozby, a first-grade teacher. “I’ve been teaching 17 years and we’ve always done it to bring funds into our school. We do ‘Donors Choose’ (a crowd-funding website that looks to funds special projects in schools), we write grants.”
She said she wrote $2,000 worth of grants last year, which allowed her to get her classroom new carpet, wobble chairs and books.
Sue Owens, vice principal, noted that teachers “spend a ton of money, hundreds of dollars” each year out of their own pockets. Parents step up, too. They are asked to bring in classroom supplies such as paper towels, tissues and hand sanitizer.
Michelle Bracken, parent on the board, has four children at Eisenberg. She said she had no problem donating supplies. She recalled doing fundraisers when she was a child and considered it the norm at any school.
“It also teaches you responsibility and that what you earn is what you get,” Bracken said. “The children like seeing that they get things back for earning money for their school.”
Title One funding purchased new computers for all the teachers at Eisenberg. With the recent addition of two more Smartboards, every classroom there now has one of the interactive teaching tools, the principal noted.
Eisenberg has about 600 students and fourth grade has up to 36 in each class, with first grade having a classroom size of 21.
McKee said of her initial thoughts about the budget gap and miscalculation, “I don’t know if you could print that. I just never give up hope. … Regardless of the budget, I have a job to do. Of course it was disheartening, but you can’t do anything about it, so you come to work and do your job.”
Contact Jan Hogan at jhogan@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2949.
