Recent news concerning budget cuts has been worrying students and faculty throughout the district. 

The district receives money based on the population of each one. More people are leaving Cherry Creek School District and more money is being lost. This loss could majorly impact all the high schools in CCSD. 

A budget approved in June of 2019 allotted a $60 million dollar budget. However, the $3.5 million dollar deficit still lingers over district officials’ heads.

“One cut that has been most specifically talked about was a ratio increase, which isn’t huge at a school of our size. We won’t see anybody lose jobs or anything drastic like that,” Silva said.

This school year the student to staff ratio was increased from 18.5 students:1 teacher to 18.75 students:1 teacher. This expected cut for the 2020-2021 school year will increase the ratio up to 19 students:1 teacher. 

At a school of our size, we can better absorb a budget cut rather than a smaller school. This cut minimally impacts us at Creek. However, district wide the increase in student to teacher ratio saves millions of dollars. 

“If there were big cuts, which I don’t foresee happening, we’ve decided at Creek to share the wealth proportionally,” Silva said. Silva has created a proportional plan in case of unlikely, detrimental budget cuts, where larger programs would get more cut, like English and Math. 

Silva doesn’t predict a severe budget cut of that extremity anytime in the future of students currently at Creek. 

“Unfortunately, it’s not surprising,” social studies teacher Fletcher Woolsey said. It is not much of a surprise to most teachers and faculty that these cuts are being made in education. 

Although these cuts are minorly impacting Creek due to the privilege of a large school, continuous cuts being made in the future could be detrimental to students learning.

“In every psychological, sociological educational study that is proven to boost student achievement across the board, across age, class, race, gender, and that’s smaller class sizes,” Woolsey said. “So, increasing class sizes will negatively impact the academic quality of the high school period. There’s not really a way around that.” The educational environment at Creek is extraordinary in the fact that it is so large and at the same time very individualized for every student. 

These cuts would strip the school of this learning experience and do worse damage to the less fortunate schools. 

“I think it’s concerning for the future of the district,” Woolsey said.