The Oil Tech Academy could face slight changes in staff due to the budget concerns. The program itself will not be affected greatly. Ted Pendergrass added to this saying, “Oil Tech is a California Partnership Academy, so we get about $75,000 from the state of California. The district has to match that dollar to dollar. Our business partners have to at least match that. Our business partners give us about $300,000 a year. It’s mandated by the state that the district and our business partners do that. If it (the budget issue) has an effect, it may be through staffing. It’s possible some Oil Tech teachers may be laid off.” The Oil Tech Academy is not facing any hard cuts at this time. This is due to the amount of funding they receive from their business partners.

On the other hand, the AVID program has been cutting spending over the past few years. This has been in an effort to save money. Debra Popejoy was able to give this information about the cuts, “Generally speaking, we have been cutting back in the AVID program for the last few years. We cut our spending by 30% last year and about 30% again this year. We have made some changes in the program to run more ‘economically efficient’ without compromising the integrity and quality of the program. If required, we will continue to make cuts so we may keep this great program for our 210 AVID 9-12 students.” The AVID program is cutting costs to help reduce the budget problem at Taft High. The quality of the program has not been compromised.

ASB will not be feeling the affects of the budget cuts due to the means they acquire their funding. April Conners said, “ASB funds are separate from district funds so the budget cuts will not affect ASB in general. All activities that are run through ASB are paid for by using ASB general funds. ASB general funds comes from club fundraisers, mock rock, ASB sticker sales, and a portion of the student store sales.”

With budget cuts being made by the district, some programs are taking hits while others are not feeling the affects. These three programs will not be harmed by the cuts to the budget. This may come as reassuring news to those involved in these programs.