By Rachel Wu
Funding for MHS will be decreased by $59,739 for the coming school year, MilpitasUnified School District (MUSD) Director of Business Services Linh Le said in an email. This is a result of MUSD reducing 15% of the Block Grant and Decentralized Grant allocated to MHS, Le added.
The decision to decrease the Block Grant and Decentralized Grant awarded to all schools in the district was made to reduce MUSD’s deficit spending for the 2020-2021 school year, Le explained in an email. The budget adoption process started in March and will be finalized with MUSD School Board approval in June, Le continued.
“We allocated funding for the daily operation of MHS based on the student enrollment number,” Le said in an email. “We also allocated additional funding for the targeted student population (Low Income, Foster Youth and English Learners) based on the percentage of Unduplicated Pupil count,” Le added.
Outside of district funding, MHS also received four grants from the government, Le said in an email. From the state, MHS received $265,154 from the Career Technical EducationIncentive Grant Program to facilitate transitions to employment and secured $224,910 from the California Partnership Academies Program for academic and occupational training, Le continued. From the federal government, MHS received $277,130 from the WorkAbility I Granttowards skills training and employment placement for special education students and also acquired $47,668 from the Carl D. Perkins Grant to improve career-technical education programs, Le added. The funding decrease may impact teacher instruction in a variety of ways.
“When I taught Advanced Placement (AP) classes before, we were allocated $1000 per section, so if you had two AP classes, that’s $2,000. For your non-AP classes, you would usually get $100 or $150 per section, and you would usually get $50 on top of that to order paper, pens, and such,” Physics teacher Charles Schletzbaum said. “[I now might receive] $50 a section,” Schletzbaum continued. “If I get to the point where I need new ticker tape or anything to replace lab equipment, I’ll have to cut back on my balsa wood construction project,” Schletzbaum added.
Each department figures out how to spend their money; for example, English has a big supply cabinet, while Social Science teachers order items individually, Psychology and APUnited States Government teacher Michael Cummins stated in an email. He is allocated $70 per year, but that is not nearly enough to cover expenses, and all teachers he knows of spend their own money, Cummins added. He will likely not feel the budget cut as much because he spends his own money, Cummins explained.
“Each school year, every full-time teacher is allocated $203.33 for their classroom expenses,” Chinese teacher Martha Kang said in an email. “After the cut, we might be allocated somewhere around $100 instead,” Kang continued. “I use this money to purchase Chromebooksets for students to use in the classroom, stationery, facial tissues, desk cleaner, printing paper, and lined paper,” Kang added. “However, thanks to [parents’ and students’ donations] every year, I don’t worry about the ability to purchase things,” Kang explained.