One day I came home from school to a discussion with my parents informing my brother and I that we might be headed toward a drought and we needed to cut back on the amount of time we take in the showers and the daily use of water. That was a few months ago.

I should probably state now that I have been very upset by the effects of the state budget cuts on Casa Grande High School. We no longer have a video production class and our art related subjects are being cut back. Not only that, but multiple new and wonderful teachers at Casa Grande have recently received pink slips- papers that say that, unless the school on a slight chance can afford to keep them, will be let go.

This is a great upset, because I feel that just as all these new employees are like an addition to the family of my class that we have grown to love and respect adding to the success of Casa's students. These new teachers have also caused even those students who have not done anything productive since seventh grade, to want to learn. They are being left behind. This means that all those students that don't learn as well as others do with the standard, old fashioned, lecture and loads of homework kind of teaching, lose their desire to learn and lose out on their opportunity. I, within this year, have watched a boy in my grade choose to stop being an obnoxious and bullying 1.00 grade point average student, to someone who cared about his future.

Things like this have been happening, because of a little push from these such teachers, the same teachers that are receiving pink slips.

Another example, is that the new librarian has been doing great things for the library at our school - getting better and better books for the student, helping them with their research, lending us her email address and free time. She sought out and earned a grant for the school library and put it to good uses, something that she didn't need to do, but chose to do, for students like me.

Also, the new drama teacher, has been such an improvement to our drama program in our school - getting another grant and using it for purchasing a mind-blowing, professional set for the play this year. It may not seem as much to those reading this, but compare it to last year's sets, that were made out of black paint and paper stars. This teacher has been giving newer, inexperienced actors, the ability to mold themselves into different characters. I've seen actors that two years ago had no improvement and were rarely casted into plays now actually being cast in plays and doing amazing accents and dialects, giving the audience a feeling that they are in the play. I've seen friends, almost unrecognizable to me, because they were so into the characters that they (with the help of the new drama teacher) have created. Teachers like this - with so much passion for giving students tools to learn - make me want to cry.

This is what upsets me. Today, I was walking on campus and the sprinklers went off on the grass. If you don't go to Casa, know this, there is a lot of grass at Casa Grande. Not only did the sprinklers go off once, they went off during lunch and after school as well. The sprinklers were mostly broken, causing gallons to gush out instead of the regular amount. It flooded the street and people driving by Casa noticed it. This is called, lack of prioritization.

Which makes sense? To keep teachers, or the keep the unnecessary grass green? When one looks back, we must ask the question - what was more important, our education, or the green grass that we walked by every day?

Whoever was responsible for this mistake, I would like to bring this to their attention. I'd like to say, that even though not everyone needs the Art program or the 3D Modeling class or the Acting class, not everyone is going to be a mathematician or a scientist. Therefore, even though the art teachers and new teachers may the first to go, they are just as important to a student and their a school. Even if there are more science related jobs, I am almost 100% sure that they are more important than things like grass.