The GAPS school district and many others are facing budget cuts leading up to the 2023-2024 school year. Looking at the GAPS proposed budget, the school district only has an allotted 122.2 million. This number, however, is uncertain, as it is only an estimate. This comes to a shortfall of 3.6 million from the estimated necessary budget. 

     According to Ms. Orsburn, the school has to prepare for certain cuts, leading to two certified teachers having to be let go. Each teacher at the school teaches six-and-a-half year-long classes, which is equivalent to thirteen semester-long classes. That would be a total of 13 classes being dropped. Along with this, four and a half hours of classified staff will be cut. This means classified staff hours are going to be removed, which includes some of the teachers’ classes as well. Classified staff are people who aren’t teachers and are a necessary part of a student’s education. 

     Success classes will also have to be cut. These classes help students catch up and get the necessary credits to graduate from high school. Without these courses, it will be harder for students who are behind to easily make up the credits they need to graduate. 

     The state funding for public schools has been set to 9.9 billion, which is 0.4 billion dollars under the recommended budget of 10.3 billion dollars. This has led to budget cuts around the state as schools are planning the next year’s budget. 

     At the school board meeting on May 17, the school board took a poll to see where their priorities are before talking about deciding what the budget would be used on. Many of the board members voted that teachers and raising their salaries are the priority. The school board, also, discussed some problems they were having earlier in the year and in the year before.

     At the meeting that took place on May 24th, the district’s budget committee held a public question session that primarily focused on the questions people had about the increase in budget funds. Many topics were touched and one of the questions answered affirmed that counselors will remain in the budget. This is all that has been touched upon at the moment, however, there are additional meetings on May 31st, June 12th, and June 26th.