Bit by bit over the past few weeks, students at Durango High School have been hearing how budget cuts will affect us next year. After Amendment 66 failed significantly, which would have dramatically increased our district’s funding, the school board has been forced to make unfortunate cuts that directly affect students.

We have overheard which teachers are being laid off; we have watched our teachers stressing out, worrying about who will have to go. We have been forced to change our entire schedules because our preferred classes are no longer being offered next year. The philosophy and psychology classes I was looking forward to taking no longer exist. Students will not be able to participate in the Career and Technical Education classes that allow us to explore options for our futures. Technology classes such as video, web design and communication technology are being cut, along with yearbook classes and culinary arts, among others.

In the past, our culinary program has produced students who have continued on to top culinary schools in order to pursue careers in the field. Without the culinary program and others like it, students will no longer have easy access to these incredible opportunities. Instead of offering career classes, the district is spending money on SchoolVault, which is meant to help us explore career options. But wouldn’t actual experience be more beneficial?

Next year, we will not have the eight-period block schedule we had this year because having fewer classes will save money. This will mean only seven shorter class periods that do not allow more in-depth lessons and double the homework every night. On Mondays, when we will have early release, classes will be only 35 minutes long – just about long enough to take out supplies, do a few warm-up problems and pack up. When students miss school for extra-curricular activities, they will miss all seven of their classes instead of just four.

Missing school is hard enough already, and it will just get harder. However, the new schedule plan is beneficial to upperclassmen taking classes at Fort Lewis College. They can take a college class every day without missing classes, which has been an issue with the block schedule.

While the district is being forced to lay off teachers and reduce the number of classes, the size of the remaining classes will grow. For students, larger classes means less one-on-one help. For teachers, more students in each class means even more work than they are already burdened with.

I understand that these cuts were not by choice. There is nothing else the district could have done with such a limited budget. Unfortunately, Colorado is now ranked 43rd in the nation for school funding. It is just unfortunate that last year, when Amendment 66 was on the ballot, citizens’ priorities strayed from our education – and now we are suffering the consequences.

Lydia Thompson is a photographer and journalist for El Diablo, the Durango High School student newspaper. She is the daughter of Jonathan and Wendy Thompson of Durango.