Critical time

A season of budget cuts reaches landmarks this week. This coming week the administration and board for Stephanie’s school district superintendent pictured to the right) will make decisions about how to cut $6.6 million from he school district budget. The cuts will no doubt affect Stephanie’s school and Stephanie and her colleagues. The details will likely be fleshed out over time. Stephanie and some of her colleagues talked more about this late last week. Also last week the board for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s largest national agency – the one I work for – met to establish “guidelines” for its budget cutting. Income to the PC(USA) General Assembly Mission Council is slated to drop up to 15-20 percent over the next two years. Four years ago 75 people (including nearly me) were laid off in my organization, but the agency has managed to avoid big layoffs since then. May 14 is the day no doubt more of us will go.

Stephanie and I have had to speculate what we would do if we BOTH lost our Kentuckiana jobs as we think about opportunities here and elsewhere and our parents, child, and companion animals. Already this month, Humana has laid off 750 Kentuckiana employees.

For more on the New Albany-Floyd County schools corporation cuts upcoming, see: http://www.newsandtribune.com/schools/local_story_012221729.html

For more on the PC(USA) budget problems, see: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2010/10176.htm

P.S. Another odd twist: A majority of Stephanie’s current English as a new language students speak Spanish, but, among those who do not, the largest are Japanese: kids of fathers who work for a Japanese firm whose New Albany plant makes parts for Toyota. With all of Toyota’s problems, it’s possible that fewer of these Japanese families may be coming to New Albany in the near future.

-- Perry