At least you have a job . . .

Doom and gloom is the economic picture on a daily basis these days. Headlines detail the different industries impacted by the recent layoffs. In Oregon and everywhere companies are making big/huge reductions in the workforce. Locally Intel and other manufacturing companies are laying off and closing their doors. At our school district in late November we were told that there would be department budgets & program cuts with an $800,000 reduction predicted to the budget for the remainder of this school year. Now we are told the budget reduction is much higher than originally predicted with it being closer to $1.5 million instead. We are suppose to be given the final numbers in about 2 weeks after the Governor presents the 2009-2011 budget. No matter who got us into this mess . . Republicans (with de-regulation and overspending) or Democrats (adding more and more government) at this point it doesn't really matter, so get over the finger pointing and get to work. We just really need to get out of it. There are more kids in our school than ever with a Mom or Dad or both without a job, and that is worrisome. The kids are stressed, they are being expected in some households to now work more hours at their "fastfood" jobs, making their education take a backseat to helping the family pay bills and put food on the table, the staff is stressed waiting for the other shoe to drop about what's going to be cut next, it's not good. Alot of the emotions are for things completely out of our control, and occasionally people need to be reminded of that.