Parents of elementary school students will get some information today about the process the Austin School District took when making cuts for next year's budget.

Educational Services Director Sheila Berger said the district is sending sheets home in all of the students' folders informing parents about the budget situation and explaining the decisions already made.

"We have discovered there is a lot of misinformation out there, and we want to clarify (things)," Berger said.

For example, she said some parents believe all music, art and physical education classes will be eliminated.

In some grades, the changes to those programs are minimal, however, in lower grades the reductions are more severe. Only in kindergarten, have they been eliminated.

Berger said they were trying to manage the programs as best they could and there are no plans to eliminate them.

"We all feel they are a very important part of elementary education," she said.

The district expects about $300,000 in cuts at the state level for the next school year, and recent reductions will make up about $185,000 of that. Reductions in specialty classes like art, music and physical education at the elementary level were deemed necessary by administration officials in order to save money and free up space for more classroom teachers. Classes are at capacity in many fourth and fifth-grade rooms across Austin.

School board members voted on the cuts at the May 8 special meeting.

Parents have expressed frustration about a number of issues surrounding the cuts. At a recent Parent-Teacher Council (PTC) meeting, many people asked why cuts were not made in other areas, such as administration or extra-curricular activities. One of the main frustrations was the lack of information from the district administration before the cuts were made.

Berger said the informational sheets are a response to questions from parents and concerns raised at that meeting. It also serves to bring parents that were not present at the meeting up-to-date on what is going on.

Matt Merritt can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:matt.merritt@austindailyherald.com