Stoller’s Money

Alex Costelow

Media Lit

6-3-10

How do students feel about how the school’s budget is being used?

Is the school using the budget appropriately?

Many students, including myself do not agree with how the schools budget is being used. One of the best quotes that I heard from an anonymous student was “I am like, seriously furious. Our parents work theirs butts off to pay taxes for school, just so they can buy pointless supplies and use them for parties.” I completely agree with this person. What he/she is trying to say is that teachers are always going on about how we always waste their supplies. They complain that it is our fault that we don’t have any school supplies left to use or don’t have any more money left on the budget to buy any more because it was already spent. But the question really is what are they spending the money on besides school supplies. There are some things that are questionable. Like where do they get all of that food in the teachers lounge for their lunch, and where do they get the money to purchase all of it? Because I know that there is always like coffee and muffins in there. Why can’t they bring their own food and just pack their own lunches just like most of us? I also think that there are some parties that aren’t needed at all. A lot of the halls get a party during each trimester just because they want one. Green hall, the hall I am in, has not had a single party except maybe one at the very beginning, but I don’t even think that we have had a single one. For those parties through out the year for the separate halls get their money from the schools budget or do they have to pay for it themselves? Because usually they have barbeques and those are really big parties that cost a lot. How will stoller be able to be the school it used to be through out the next few years if it follows through in these patterns?

Why is this important to us as stoller students?

  Stoller is a very nice school and is one of the best middle schools in the area. Many other schools like Highland and Cedar Park have lower school budgets than Stoller does. So we are in a better position than they are, but I have talked to student that go to Cedar Park and they say it is just as bad as Stoller is. Stoller no longer gets any more field trips. The outdoor school for the 6^th graders this year was not help at Hortins hide out. It was held up in a forest just about a mile off of school campus. Everyone including the 8^th grade volunteers and the 6^th grade student had to walk. It wasn’t that far of a walk but that fact that the school couldn’t provide I better sight was bad. At Cedar Park they walked from their school to the movie theaters to watch The Lightning Thief for an educational movie. I am not sure how long of a walk it was for them but their school couldn’t provide a bus ride for them and they had to pay for their own ticket to get into the movies. An anonymous quote from a stoller student was “I feel that the school could be using their money more appropriately.” I agree with this person to some substances. The school is defiantly doing as much as they can to make sure the school has enough money for the most important things like school supplies and the lunch food, but there are some things that could be cut. I think that all parties unless students completely pay for the whole thing should be cut and also the teacher lounge food should be cut. For one it is completely unfair and they always have so much food in there everyday. I think that this problem for the schools budget is very important for stoller students to be informed about.

Now what?

There is nothing more that stoller can do to help the schools budget. The school year is almost over and next year there will be more money for them to slowly start all over with. All of student said that they think next year will be different and more strict about the budget, as in no field trips from the start and no parties that they will be providing money for. A lot of student have told me that they really like being a student here at stoller when I interviewed them. They said that the field trips and the parties don’t make that much of a difference in how the school is being ran. You don’t even get field trips or parties that often anyways so most of the time it feels like nothing is missing. Students think that stoller is a nice and fun learning environment and all the 8^th graders are glad that they went to stoller then any other school. I personally think that stoller is a great school and that the schools budget is not that big of a deal. I loved being a student here at stoller and many students are happy on how this year worked out, it was different, but a great! Stoller middle school isn’t suffering from any terrible issues and never will.

No more money, No more field trips.