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May 17, 2008 8:56 pm US/Eastern
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Teachers & Parents Discuss School Budget Concerns
SOUTH WEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) ―
After the recent announcement that the Miami-Dade School District will be cutting the school's budget, a grassroots campaign consisting of parents and teachers want administrators to cut from their checks.
On Saturday, in a small church in Southwest Miami-Dade teachers, parents and a few school board members met to discuss what some of them call a "crumbling state of financial affairs" at the Miami-Dade School District.
"They're cutting tutoring after school services, they're cutting busing, their cutting hours, they're raising prices, and they're cutting field trips," said a teacher, Shawn Beightol.
The Miami-Dade School admitted Saturday that it is in a crisis, citing millions in budget cuts that have to be made because of shortfalls in state funding. But where those cuts should be made it's where the disagreement comes in.
"Dr. Crew needs to be fired and the majority of who allow the misbehavior that I perceive and these budget cuts that affect students instead of cutting in other areas of the big humongous system," said a teacher, Dr. Maria Diaz-Viciedo. "Why affect the students the students are the reason that we are there."
The leaders of the meeting urged the district to stop cutting from the bottom; the students and teacher services. They want them to cut from the top; administrators.
They also hope to form an oversight board that would watch over decisions made by the school board and the superintended. They said if neither respects, the public's input, then the public needs to output.
'We've got an election coming up August 26th. we have five school board members that are up for re-election," explained Beightol. "It's time to hold them accountable or to tell them goodbye."
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