Diane Knight
FINANCES
What are your priorities for the district’s budget, and how would you ensure resources are allocated effectively to support student needs?
The classroom must be the focus of every decision we make and must receive priority in the budget. The first question this new board must ask when evaluating any expenditure is:
How will this affect the classroom?
Our priority must be twofold:
- Ensuring optimal class sizes, and
- Proactively using money already allocated for class size reduction.
The Reality of FTE Allocation:
Last year’s Alpine School District budget included 118 FTEs—full-time teaching positions—already approved for class size reduction.
Why weren’t they used more effectively?
Because reducing class sizes by just one student per grade level would cost roughly $1 million per grade, the district chose to deploy these FTEs only in hot spots.
While this sounds like a strategy, here’s the harsh truth:
- Teachers are often hired just days before the school year begins—or weeks after.
- These educators are then expected to:
- Set up a full classroom,
- Reach out to parents, and
- Launch new curriculum—overnight.
Impact on Students:
- Picture explaining to five-year-olds who’ve already bonded with their teacher after six weeks, that they now have a new one.
- Or my granddaughter’s junior high math class—40 students, not enough desks, and kids having to rush to class just to get a seat.
And here’s the kicker:
The money was already in the budget.
We must assign these FTEs to WARM SPOTS—areas showing signs of strain—before they become blazing infernos.
What’s Worse?
In the new budget just passed, 25 of those FTEs were eliminated altogether—based on the claim that they’re not needed.
Oh, yes we do need them.
My Approach as a Board Member:
- Ensure classroom-centered decision-making at every level.
- Use existing resources to relieve pressure on teachers and students.
- Prevent crises by addressing needs early rather than reacting too late.
We may not be able to solve everything at once—but we can start moving in the right direction with the money we already have.