REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio -- When students in a Central Ohio community head back to school in a couple months, several programs that used to be free, won't be.
Connie Wallace's daughter, Kaitlin, just finished up eighth grade. While she's still a few months away from her first day at Reynoldsburg High School, her freshman year is already getting off to a shaky start thanks to budget cuts.
Facing some $11 million in budget cuts, Tuesday night, district school board members took drastic cost-saving steps such as cutting all high-school busing. They also split high-school starting times. Because of traffic and position cuts, juniors and seniors will now start at 8 a.m., freshman and sophomores at 9 a.m.
Wallace says they were planning on having Kaitlin ride to school with an older student but not anymore.
"My husband has to go out of town in the morning," she said. "Sometimes I do, so it's going to be hard for her to get to school. We're going to have to work it out with friends and family. We thought we had a plan in place."
But that's just the beginning. The district will also now charge for programs that were once free. For instance, it will now cost a student $75 to be in choir and orchestra and $150 to be in marching band.
To play sports, junior-high students will have to pay $300 each with a cap of $600. High-school students will have to pay $500 each with a cap of $1,000.
That has Wallace unsure whether Kaitlin will be able to be a cheerleader, as she has for years.
"Five-hundred dollars for sports is expensive. I've talked to a lot of parents who aren't going to be able to let their kids play," Wallace said.
Additional cuts made include all general music classes from kindergarten through sixth grade as well as middle-school band and choir programs.
District officials say this is what had to be done after a 15.6-mill levy failed last month.
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