At Benson Polytechnic High School, about a third of students go into Health Occupations, one of three Career Technical Education (CTE) academies at the school. Students get to use X-ray machines, a fully equipped simulation room, and, at the end, get real, professionally recognized certifications. But despite all of the expensive machinery, Health Occ. can’t always afford the basics.
“A couple of weeks ago, before the break. I had some seniors cleaning up the lab spaces, and a couple of them put on gloves for a task they didn’t need gloves for. And I had to ask them to please not wear gloves for this,” said Meredith McClanen, a Medical Professions teacher at Benson. “I was afraid of running out of a supply we need.”
It’s common for students to use gloves in Health Occ., being a vital part of most labs. McClanen’s budget, she explained, is set based on numbers from two years ago, which do not account for the increased enrollment in her thriving CTE program. That doesn’t even include recent state-wide budget concerns for education and a major budget freeze at the district level. CTE programs across BPHS are feeling the cost of these essential consumable materials more than usual.
For a bit of context, a consumable is an item or object that you use and throw away; you consume it. You see this in almost every CTE class, whether it be wood in Construction or a film roll in Photography.
Money for consumables comes from many areas. The federal government gives a check to states for CTE programs. The State of Oregon hands over these funds, as well as money from the state budget, to individual districts, which in turn fund programs like Health Occ. Any need for consumables that remain is the job of the teachers and students to fundraise.
Principal Curtis Wilson Jr. asks the CTE teachers to divide Benson’s CTE consumable funds among themselves. “I meet with one of the teachers and I say, hey, I need you to get the CTE teachers together. You have eighty thousand dollars to divide up how you see fit,” he explained, in a hypothetical budget. “And when you’re done, let me know who’s getting what piece of the pie… [but] if you were just to divide it among the ten CTE programs, everybody would get eight thousand dollars. But that’s not equitable because some programs spend much more than others, and some programs don’t even need it.” In other words, it’s up to teachers to work it out.
Teachers are worried that, because of recent budget issues in the district, the shortfalls could be major at the same time that Benson classes get bigger. This has already shown signs of potentially affecting the Tech Skills majors, which have expensive consumables like wood, metal, wire, and more. They may be forced to eliminate projects they can’t afford. Dan Harrison, one of the Manufacturing teachers, knows this firsthand. “I’m very invested in my program as far as infrastructure and everything, very invested in our senior bicycle frame building project. And I’m not going to change that. I’m going to fight to keep that how it is and what we do.”
Looking ahead, some teachers fear existing deficits will continue to grow. Todd Williams, a Digital Media Production teacher, said, “I’m not worried about the freeze for this year. But of course next year we’re in a whole budget shortfall.” On top of it all, DMP is gaining its largest junior class ever next year. The worry is, with more students comes a need for more consumables — but with the current budget freeze, next year appears up in the air. “Without consumables, the junior class simply just doesn’t work,” Williams said. “We don’t have the film and the chemicals. Then there is no junior class.”
