Colfax High staff and students will be feeling the pinch of state budget cuts this fall.

The Placer Union High School District has mandated cuts at each high school in the district, reported Doug Marquand, assistant superintendent for administration services.

The district, he continued, “took a reduction of 18 percent in its annual budget overall. We’ve had to pass those reductions on to the (school) sites. It’s going to have a severe impact.”

Positions for a part-time counselor and a vice principal were not filled when the individuals in those jobs retired at the end of the school year, he continued, adding the tasks of the vice principal will now be picked up by the athletic director,

“Colfax High School is declining in enrollment,” Marquand said. “That make it even more challenging.”

Principal Rick Spears agrees the school is facing funding challenges.

“We’re just trying to cut back wherever we can,” he said. “We’re doing some simple things.”

But that doesn’t make the cuts any less painful.

“Our Career Tech got laid off,” Spears said. “It’s a huge loss. She did a great job with our career center.”

With the loss of Bobbi Jo Forsyth, who had worked part-time for 10 years at Colfax High, several events (Career Faire, Senior Interviews and personality assessments) will no longer be offered.

Spears believes it would be next to impossible for a staff member (or a volunteer) to take over those responsibilities. .

“Students will be missing out on really important information for their futures,” said Forsyth. “It’s a huge step backwards in our educational system.”

Marquand pointed out that Colfax was the only high school in the district with a career tech position.

“We couldn’t continue to make that offering at that school when everybody else didn’t have one (career tech),” he said, adding “we’d like to have one in every school.”

The impact will be felt in the classrooms with increased class sizes in freshman math (from 20 to 28 students) and English classes (now up to 34 students).

The cuts will also impact the number of mailings to parents, custodial service on campus and teacher materials. Athletic fees will increase, Spears acknowledged.

“It is a money situation,” he said. “We need the financial support and we’re not getting it from the state.”

In the interim, Spears encourages residents and parents to support the high school through the Falcon Foundation or the Parents Club.