Superintendent Jeff Young’s proposed budget, introduced on March 5, leaves the Wellness department at the bottom of Newton’s priority list. The Wellness department will be forced to take a cut of 1.4 teaching positions and students will now only be required to take five terms of Wellness instead of seven. Neither the elementary schools nor middle schools will take a cut; however, the middle schools did last year.
This latest drastic cut comes almost a year after the failed property tax override last May, leaving the Newton’s schools with huge dents in their budgets. This school year saw, among other cuts, the total elimination of the ISS program, leaving students without substitute teachers.
This latest major change is certainly not welcome. Another teacher will lose his/her job, students will feel as if their resources are slowly dwindling. In a school that was only so recently finished after years of construction, that features a rock climbing wall, overhead projectors linked to both laptops and DVD players in every classroom and a state-of-the-art language lab, these new cuts seem preposterous.
Yet these are difficult economic times, to put it mildly. Currently in Massachusetts, there is an 8.1 percent jobless rate, compared to 5.2 percent last year. The suburbs west of Boston were hit particularly hard in January and construction jobs across the state are at a 10-year low. It is a pity that the Newton Public Schools must contribute to this downward trend, yet Young had to make cuts. The news seems additionally amplified on the heels of last year’s override.
However, the Wellness department was an appropriate place to cut down on expenses. Currently, the number of Wellness credits required to graduate is topped only by those in the English department: English requires eight credits while Wellness requires seven. History only requires six, and math and science require just four. This seems remarkably unbalanced. According to Assistant Principal Mary Scott, the cut in Wellness requirements was intended to help even out graduation requirements.
While many juniors and seniors may be disappointed with this cut, they can exercise outside of school, but it is much harder to obtain extra science classes on an extracurricular level or have access to art supplies.
Yet many juniors and seniors may very well not be disappointed. As the Wellness program now stands, many upperclassmen opt to take Alternative Wellness one semester. This course supposedly requires students to attend a fitness class of some kind outside of school on a regular basis and get a form signed by the instructor; however, this is frequently ignored by the students taking the course and they receive credit anyways. Therefore, the new cut will not provide a huge shift for some. Additionally, many upperclassmen mutter that Wellness for juniors and seniors is “a joke” anyways because many get away with the bare minimum in physical activity. Although this may be disheartening for Wellness faculty, it is a reality. Only by looking at this reality can the cuts begin to seem more rational.
The most valuable tenets of the Wellness program will still remain both required and intact, however, as they pertain to underclassmen. Courses dealing with education, nutrition, drugs and alcohol and basic fitness will all remain part of the curriculum. These courses are crucial, and thankfully will not be cut.
Many argue that these cuts come at a time when the obesity level in our country is out of control. Obesity rates have risen by 6 percent for ages 12- 19 over the past 25 years. This is an outrage and should certainly be combated by the school. However, topics surrounding nutrition and exercise can still be covered in freshman and sophomore year.
This latest budget decision has shined a staggeringly bright light onto the priorities of the Newton school system. But it is not a truth that until now has been unknown, it has only sharpened the focus: academics come first. While it is sad that physical health and mental acuity must be prioritized, nowadays everything must be prioritized. Newton has always been renowned for the quality of its academics and that should absolutely not be sacrificed in light of the recession. It is a shame that a teacher will most likely lose his/her job. There is no way to rationalize that. However, the school system has made a decision, a decision to continue to further the tradition that has made our school system so strong: prizing academics most.
