Schools
First Week Back at East
The new school year brought beautiful new additions to the high school. But is this a good thing?
On the first day of school last week, we walked into Smithtown East and were greeted by new floors, smartboards in nearly every classroom, a new turf field under construction, a high-tech camera system in the school store and a fountain being put outside of the gym on the side of the school.
Not many students are even remotely aware that budget cuts took place in school systems across Long Island and that New York State is struggling to fund education. I think this is both a good and bad thing.
I understand that funding and budgeting is complicated and support school beautification and making Smithtown East more appealing. However, if budget cuts are taking place on sports and activities, these aesthetic changes are not suitable replacements.
Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Instead of making additions to the school, Smithtown should somehow use that money to rescue programs, teams and clubs that were lost in previous years because of cuts. Or, they should be clear with students how the additions were funded in this difficult economic time.
Smartboards may seem like a great thing but I don't think they are necessary in every classroom or are actually that beneficial to our education. Half of the teachers have trouble using them and spend up to twenty minutes trying to figure them out during valuable class time. For years students have learned from chalk boards, dry erase boards and textbooks and it worked just fine.
Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Most students over the past few years have commented on not having sets of in-class textbooks available. The money set aside for new textbooks decreased by 16.12 percent this year across the entire district, according to the Smithtown Central School District 2010-2011 Proposed Budget sheet found on the school district's website.
Meanwhile, the budget for non-print media increased 7.14 percent this year in the media center at our schools. Smithtown has clearly been focusing more on the new technology aspect of teaching rather than the "old" way of learning like textbooks, and worksheets — which is good, but they should consider that some students may like learning the traditional way.
Overall the total amount of money cut from Smithtown School District this year is $226,370 according to the Smithtown Central School District 2010-2011 Proposed Budget Sheet. Honestly, us students at Smithtown East do not notice the budget cuts in the system. I don't think we will anytime soon.
