Sentinel High School currently faces two $25,000 cuts that need to be made from building funds and activities funds. Sentinel principal Stephanie Thennis answered some questions during an interview about what changes will be made to the school.
WHAT THE CUTS MEAN
Sentinel departments will discuss and recommend what classes/electives or areas of importance (such as smaller class sizes) are critical to the department while still meeting the parameters of the budget cuts. Ultimately, the final decision is up to SHS administration.
This hardship is something that Sentinel will have to overcome together.
Staff members who are currently hired under ESSER funds knew in their contracts that said funds would eventually expire. Faculty members to be impacted the most are those in the English department, who currently have the most needed cuts (“1.17” full-time employees, or ‘FTE’”).
Contracts for teachers go by a number scale to show how many classes for which they will be responsible. For example: full-time teachers are “1.0” while part-time teachers can be “.5” or any variation thereof. This means the English department alone must eliminate the equivalent of six courses.
Furthermore, there are two $25,000 budget cuts (creating a total of $50,000) – it is the responsibility of Thennis to decide where the school can save money. Thennis stated that this is “[going to] be a hard pill to swallow.”
One of the two cuts is coming from the building budget. This means that Thennis has to adjust to different and more effective means of “financial management.” There are multiple areas for Thennis to look at when making her decision, such as deciding whether or not classes need new furniture or new books. Rather than approaching this as a setback, Thennis views this as an opportunity for Sentinel to start improving on the spending of funds.
Thennis will also need to take the same course of action with the Activities budget. The focus for balancing this budget includes discovering methods of saving money such as saving on transportation for traveling activity teams.
One misconception with the cuts is that only the arts and music are affected. Thennis clarified that all sports and clubs who travel will be impacted as well as Fine Arts. However, Fine Arts are affected by the building budget and traveling activity teams are affected by the activities budget.
EFFECTS ON SENTINEL TEACHERS
Two staff cuts need to be made, which is the responsibility of Thennis as the lead administrator at Sentinel. This decision changes the school environment and possibly forces class sizes to be increased. Thennis regularly communicates with non-tenured teachers to keep them advised on the district process for non-renewal and future position postings.
Since the interview, The Spartan Scoop has learned of a total of 4.0 FTE cuts. These are not always one full person (or FTE). They may be split over various departments thus lessening the impact to single departments. The impact to a department is dependent on factors such as low student/teacher ratios (number of students enrolled in a class vs. the number of seats available in the class) and through attrition (meaning retirement and open positions).
Every teacher that has worked for MCPS three years or under will not have their contract automatically renewed. This year will be no different; however, the question now at hand is how to handle eliminated positions on Sentinel’s campus when those teachers still have tenure and seniority. For example, if a tenured middle school Social Studies teacher position is taken away and they are qualified to teach high school Social Studies, they can be brought to Sentinel to take over a non-tenured teacher’s position.
For Spartans, there is an apparent change coming to Sentinel in the form of losing trusted teachers and adult mentors. This continues to play into the emotional well-being of our students post-COVID.
English teacher Tammi Allison notes that many of our teachers are facing a change in their whole future, compared to students who will only be dealing with a lack of variety of classes to take next school year. It is inevitable that some Sentinel faculty members will lose their mentees and friends.
Untenured Social Studies teacher Halle Townes acknowledges that Sentinel’s culture will change with the upcoming 2024-2025 school year. Some of the regular faces that greet students in the hall may no longer be there. Incoming teachers will also face the same issues of losing previously-formed connections.
An additional issue being raised is the possible elimination of elective offerings. A major complication, as English teacher Meredith Britt mentions, is that electives like Creative Writing and Journalism are some of the classes that motivate students to come to school in the first place. A large part of rebuilding Sentinel and MCPS as a whole after COVID isn’t just addressing the loss in academics, but also a lack of social and emotional health.
Losing these classes factors beyond just availability, but also in having one-on-one interaction in core classes affected. Traditionally, the more students in a class the harder it is for all voices to be recognized. Students who feel less inclined to talk or contribute to a conversation are also less likely to be involved when the community aspect becomes smaller due to larger class sizes. It becomes less personal.
Students will have the same required courses to select from to meet graduation requirements, however there will likely be less elective options offered within a variety of departments.
For many teachers, overflow of students in a single class is undesirable. Teachers sometimes have a preference for smaller classes because they tend to have a calmer environment. For example, it’s more difficult for teachers to hold class-wide discussions when there are thirty different students who need to provide their individual perspective.
More students in a classroom also means that teachers will have to spend more time on grading. For English and Social Studies teachers who often have assigned work that is lengthier, this could mean spending many more hours combing through essays or examining one-pagers.
Sentinel English Department Head Jennifer Reinicke revealed in an interview that “all small classes” are going to face possible cancellation. Although still important, classes with fewer enrolled students would be logically the first cut when school funding is running low.
Altogether, the MCPS budget cuts have had, and will continue, to have negative impacts on Sentinel High School. It’s crucial to not downplay the importance of these changes on teachers and students’ lives; most of all, it’s most important of all to correctly understand the facts. This hardship is something that Sentinel will have to overcome together.
