Vol 48 Iss 1 Oct 22 2019

Alutant October 22, 2019
11
A New Budget Woe for Ellensburg
High School’s Clubs
A
Jada Godwin
Editor in Chief
Feature
With a new school year
comes a new budget - and some
people aren’t happy about it.
With the latest budget revision,
$80,000 was reduced from
the co-curricular budget for Ellensburg
High School and Morgan
Middle School.
These reductions were
mainly on athletic transportation,
equipment purchasing
and reconditioning, various
services for the schools, miscellaneous
items
for multiple
programs,
and club stipends.
While any
of these are
Clubs Affected
Cover to Cover
Creative Writing
El Club de Español
History Club
Key Club
Marine Biology
Peace Club
TSA
and more
issues, the
club stipends
have caused
a noticeable
uproar.
Club stipends
are
contracts in which teachers are
paid for their extra time and
energy advising clubs. Some
advisors get more money than
others depending on their time
spent with the club outside of
school, among other factors.
It was announced last spring
in a letter to all the club advisors
that the club stipends would be
cut for the following year. This
Club Stipends Matter
was sent out before the teacher
strike vote and salary increase
that took place last summer.
“We didn’t qualify for several
adjustments that would
have given us more money
and as a consequence we are,
at the moment, underfunded,”
says Charlie Acheson, a history
teacher and the History Club
advisor at EHS.
According to Acheson,
those adjustments included the
cost of living and free and reduced
lunch program, both of
which had barely missed the
requirements that would have
granted additional
funding for the
Ellensburg School
District.
Acheson also
helped organize
the club advisors
to sign a petition
to get the stipends
back, but the district
has yet to respond
to it.
Clubs must
have a full charter
before the advisors can get a stipend,
so many new clubs don’t
have their advisors receive stipends.
While this means that
some clubs aren’t feeling the
pressure, many of the school’s
older clubs are.
The advisors for Knowledge
Bowl and Yearbook, the band
and choir directors, and the
activities coordinator are the
Acheson smiles for the camera.
only staff receiving stipends for
the 2019-2020 school year, due to
“either required and/or significant
hours outside of the school
day”, as stated in an email that
was sent out this fall.
Acheson believes the stipends
could come back.
“I really would hope that
the district reconsiders where
they’re allocating they’re money,
and puts it into programs
that are the most beneficial for
students,” says Acheson. “I
think that’s the education realm
- teachers - and I think it’s also
in the realm of clubs, because it’s
an area where students can meet
with like minded individuals to
explore topics and content that
drives them and motivates them.
Because that’s what they might
do in their life.”