Tiered school scheduling a good move

A raging debate lately has prompted this question: Are we in a recession?

Experts and pundits have argued for months that our country is in an economic slowdown, halting just short of declaring a bona fide recession. Gasoline prices are downright ridiculous, food prices are soaring, your neighbor's house is under foreclosure and thousands of people are losing their jobs every day.

Everybody I talk to agrees we've been in a recession for nearly a year.

The Santa Rosa County School District is dealing with a recession of its own. Early this year, the District was mandated by the state to cut $2.3 million out of its $296 million budget and reduce spending by another $2 million.

Rather than plan cuts that would drastically threaten classroom performance and teaching jobs, the District chose to implement a controversial three-tier bus schedule that will require significantly fewer buses and save it about $1.3 million next school year. The plan - characterized by District 5 School Board member Ed Gray III of Gulf Breeze as "the lesser of the evils" - will stagger teachers' and students' arrival and dismissal times.

Yes, it will create some inconvenience and headaches for parents and their children until they get accustomed to the new schedules.

But it was the right thing to do.

Escambia County is strongly considering eliminating a number of teaching positions. That will add more people to the unemployment rolls, just adding to the misery for the working middle class that is barely able to keep its nose above water.

My child might have to practice athletics early in the day, or finish a math test by 3:45 p.m. The wife and I might have to make sacrifices to see to it that our daughter can participate in extracurricular activities.

But it's a small price to pay when so many are dealing with recession.

And that includes the bean counters in the School District.