One of the largest tasks that the school system works with every year is funding. There are always things to buy and trips to plan. The school system provides most of the funding but the Rockbridge community helps as well.
Once the money is received, principal Michael Craft and bookkeeper Lisa Miller distribute it among the departments. However, the CTE courses funding is entirely different
Craft was interviewed about funding.
“Career and tech education, which covers the wide spectrum of everything from agriculture to technology education, all your auto tech, all that. They get separate funding from the federal government, it’s called Perkins Fund,” Craft said “Departments in the school are funded locally for the most part through state and local funds, but federal money kicks in when you go to your CTE programs.”
However, funding has limits. Departments receive a set amount of money every year and each teacher often has to make do with what they have.
To see what teachers would do if they got more funding, they were interviewed about what if they suddenly had $1,000,000 to put into their classrooms to accomplish their plans.
When the administration was asked about their “what if plans,” their answer put the staff first.
“If I had a million dollars, I’d split it up and give it to all the teachers as a reward for all their hard work. Then after that, I’d probably hire some more aides and teachers to help the teachers,” Craft said.
Scott Youngdahl in the world languages department was asked what his million dollar what if would be.
“I would use that money to buy plane tickets for all of my students and one of their family members, and we would go spend a week in Mexico City during spring break,” Youngdahl said.
CTE courses train the next generation of mechanics, firefighters, and other trade based professions. Lieutenant Shane Watts is the instructor for firefighting and EMT and his million dollar wishlist is just one thing.
“I would put that money towards a new burn building, so that we can do interior firefighting and have some real-life training scenarios,” Watts said.
Although people usually associate history trips with classes like art or languages, in the math department Anglea Kincaid laid out her plan to invest that million dollars into her class.
“I would like to take my kids on a trip through math history, so that they could visit Asia, Germany, and Oxford and see where the math was created and understand why it was created,” Kincaid said.
Not all wishlists are about class trips or school supplies. Colter Bennett, the materials and processes teacher, has a bit of a different wishlist .
“I would get each student a microwave and a Chromebook charger so they don’t steal mine,” Bennett said.
Similarly Lauren Williamson, one of the history teachers, would like to treat her students a bit.
“I would give my kids reclining chairs as part of their desks that have that nice little like massage and heated feature,” Williamson said.
While funding varies, one thing is clear: teachers want to give students the best foundation for life. The best way students and parents can help is by making sure they can get the funding and supplies they need to develop the next generation.
