Lakota Local Schools are quickly sinkingEvery student will achieve

their fullest potential” and “no child left behind” are

supposed to be the rules that the Lakota district lives by. We’re afraid that both of these won’t be pos-sible anymore. With so many teachers be-

ing laid off, and classes being cut, we’re start-ing to question if La-kota is heading in the same direction as the Titanic.

There will only be two levels of classes: honors and a general level class. If you are

not in honors, you will be in a class with all other students. This means that kids who learn faster, and should be in CP, will be in classes with lower level students. Why should the students who need more time to understand the material be pushed to a College Prep level? In the same thought the CP kids could be slowed down to the point of thinking, “Why haven’t we moved on yet? I can do this in my sleep.”

The curriculum courses in Lakota are above state level curriculum courses. In the 2010-2011 school year, according to usnews.com, the two Lakota high schools had a total combined number of 5,224 stu-dents. Based on total number of students per school, student to teacher ratio, College Readiness Index, Math Proficiency, and Reading Proficiency, Lakota West was ranked number 60, and Lakota East was

ranked number 42, of all of the high schools in the state of Ohio. With both Lakota high schools being above 100th place, you would think the district are a really good place to get an education, but not so

much anymore. Because of insane decisions like cut-ting down to six periods, everyone under this year’s senior class will suffer loss of credit. Instead of grad-uating with 21 credits, the graduating requirement will be 20 credits. Because of this, people are look-ing into private schools, or even moving out of the Lakota district. How much money does Lakota need to save before students start leaving once and for all?

When the levy failed, we all knew next year would

be painful, but no one could have expected all of this. And on top of all of this, we bet that the people who voted against the levy didn’t realize that they were voting to devalue their own private property (house).

As Lakota loses more money, the value of the district goes down; making the value of West Chester decreases along with it. When West Chester loses value, so do people’s property value. Lakota is not offering the same experience that it once has had. Rated excellent? Would that even be true next year? Many peo-ple will be moving out of the district or changing schools because Lakota going downhill.

These cuts are painful, everyone knows that. No one wants to take them, and no one wants to give them, but they need to happen. If there is a way to save money, we think it would be to split the district into two separate districts: La-kota West and Lakota East. This way, the schools could spend money the way they see fit. They could focus more on the places the money needs to be spent, rather than having the school board do their best guessing to figure out where money needs to be spent. The fact is

that Lakota is just too big, and covers too much area, for the money to be spread. There needs to be a way for the future of America to get the best education possible, and the way we are headed is not it.

Voice graphic made by Emma Huddleston

Joanna SauterStaff Reporter

Chelsey KaufmanStaff Reporter