By Evangeline Lacroix
Computers, a multimedia center, lounges on the third floor, banners on the first floor, and more SMART Boards. Every year new additions are made to improve the look and functionality of Lane. These are the improvements for this year.
But in a time where Lane has gone through major budget cuts within the last year, how are these projects being funded? Within the school, different organizations help by raising money for different projects. Each organization is in charge of a specific area that they can help fund.
“You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Mrs. Hanly, an assistant principal.
This is key to remember with all the budget cuts the school has faced. CPS initiated Student Based Budgeting (SBB). The new policy provides a specific dollar amount for each student enrolled in the school.
In years before this, schools would be given teacher positions based on enrollment numbers. Now, the number tied to each student pays for all the staff, not just teachers. In order to balance their budgets, schools would remove teaching positions, now it could be any position.
Once schools have finalized their student enrollment, there is an inspection of a school’s budget by CPS at the start of the school year.
“[This happens]every school year and this is not different,” Dr. Dignam said.
This process is called the 20th Day Enrollment. CPS looks at the number of actual students enrolled compared to the projected number. If these numbers do not match, the money is changed accordingly. This year, CPS has decided not to cut any funding due to expectations not met during the 20th Day Enrollment. Schools that exceed the projected number will still receive more money.
Along with the salaries, the budget also covers some of the daily needs of students such as paper and textbooks, but not projects such as the new improvements around Lane this school year.
Organizations such as the PTSO, Century Foundation, and the Alumni Association all fund these projects.
“I will present more than one idea [to the foundations]. I can only request and they can consider and approve,” Dignam said.
From there, each foundation collects money for specific needs throughout the school, but, each foundation can only raise money for projects within specific parameters.
“Sometimes, we get ideas from other schools,” Hanly said.
The new lounges on the third floor were put in place after members of the administration visited schools like Whitney Young and Northside College Prep for different meetings. Administrators saw a usefulness in these lounges and decided to implement them in Lane.
“Our students love to stay after school,” Hanly said. “It is nice for students who are waiting for practice or are between clubs to have a place to socialize and do homework.”
The Century Foundation funded this project.
This organization consists of a small group of alumni who fund structural projects. Most of the money they raise comes from the Memorial Carnival in the spring.
Along with the Alumni Association, they funded the multimedia center, and the changes in the library that are currently under construction due to be done on Nov. 15.
“In order to fund [the media center], the school bought the computers and the other groups have agreed to fund the remaining library upgrades,” Dignam said. “We used Whitney as an example. When you go to a selective enrollment high school they would have a college and career center, [and] a media center. Some place where if you have a presentation, you have some place to sit that is not a classroom, or sitting in a library,”
One purpose of the room is to connect students to classrooms across the country by live streaming discussions and activities.
“We have an exchange with a school in Italy. It would be interesting for [our] students to see [those students] live while you are teaching a class,” Dignam said.
Another installation around the school have been the banners on the first floor.
Because Lane receives a lot of visitors, from alumni to open house visitors, the banners are meant to promote the school.
“They are like the plaques [on the first floor]. They are to show how great our school is and all the programs we offer,” Hanly said.
The banners were bought and paid for by the school at the end of last year, and then put in place over the summer.
This year, 15 more SMART Boards were installed in classrooms. The PTSO funded this project through private events such as last year’s first annual gala and profits from the school store.
Each organization associated with Lane can only fund specific things. The same goes for the money given to Lane by CPS and the government. This lack of resources is also why the student fee has gone up.
“We have to cover students’ basic needs. We raised student fees because departments cannot afford to pay for things like photocopies,” Hanly said. “That is why a lot of teachers may ask for students to print things from home.”
Because organizations such as the Century Foundation, PTSO, and Alumni Association can only pay for certain things, the administration have started the Lift Up Lane program to help offset the everyday expenses that cannot be fully covered. Through social media, the administration hopes to contact alumni to get them to donate.
“We know alumni may not have a job right after graduation, but if a 10,000 of them gave $10 each, that would go a long way,” Hanly said.
