This year teachers throughout the district, including those at West Shore, lost a planning period due to budget cuts. Planning periods had the biggest price tag on the list of expenses.

“Losing the planning period saves $11 million a year,” Assistant Principal Jackie Ingratta said. “This has affected the teachers negatively.”

In previous years, teachers taught five out of seven classes, and a select few were paid extra for volunteering to teach six out of seven. Now that teaching six out of the seven is required for all teachers, no one is getting paid extra.

“I’ve taught 6 of 7 a lot, so I’m used to it but there is less time to do everything,” history teacher and basketball coach Tony Riopelle said.

Teachers now have less time to grade assignments. For English teachers grading one class of essays takes about 30 hours in total. The extra stress and work this added has resulted in the loss of clubs during school.