For those involved in the Knox County Schools magnet programs, budget cuts aren't an option, but members of the Board of Education say the programs aren't meeting the goal of improving student literacy.
"Come out here and look at my kids, look them in the eyes and look at it as bigger than that number," Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy Principal Dr. Amy Brace said.
"You are taking away from my children ... do not hurt my children."
Brace said magnet programs, faculty members and teacher assistants would all be cut under the proposed budget plan in front of the Knox County Schools Board of Education. She and hundreds of other parents, teachers and school faculty members showed their support for the programs at the board's work session Monday night.
KCS Superintendent Bob Thomas proposed magnet cuts in his budget, including eliminating magnet programs altogether at Sarah Moore Greene and Green magnet academies.
"One of the things that was said was, lack of parent interest, and you can look last night and see that is not the case," Brace said.
In response to requests for an interview about the proposed budget on Tuesday, a KCS spokesperson provided the following statement from Thomas to 10News:
"It is encouraging to see so many families, students and others come out in support of their schools and their community. The board will have further discussion at their meeting tomorrow and I look forward to the conversation."
The board will vote on the budget proposal during their meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Corey Hodge has been part of Project GRAD, another program that could receive cuts, since he was in kindergarten. He graduated high school, received a degree from the University of Tennessee and is now working with Project GRAD at Whittle Springs middle school.
"If I didn't have Project GRAD, I couldn't tell you if I would be here right now, standing here at Whittle Springs being able to influence the same kids that were in my position back in middle school," he said.
He said the program can't go anywhere.
"I thought, I meditated on this, and it's something that just makes no sense to me," Hodge said.
According to Brace, it's those relationships, not test scores, that really define the magnet program and others like it.
"Come and see what our kids need, come and see the benefit. Our reading scores are not where we want them to be, but removing resources from our building is not the way to improve what we're doing," she said.
One of the reasons for cutting money from the magnet programs is to shift that funding to literacy programs, said BOE vice chair Amber Rountree.
"Superintendent Thomas has really said he wants to make literacy a key priority for our kids," she said. "In particular, magnet programs have not seen a lot of growth there or met a lot of the goals as they've been put into place."
"Our district is really looking at if we're using our tax payer dollars wisely and we see great outcomes for our students," Rountree said.
Board chair Patti Bounds told 10News she appreciates the passion people showed for their students, schools and community at the board meeting.
Bounds said the magnet programs began with the idea of increasing literacy and reading comprehension, and the programs were meant to support student achievement in those areas.
"Current research, sadly, shows for some elements of magnet that hasn't been so," Bounds said in an emailed statement.
"We understand the difficult(y) of change and the loss of magnet related activities, but it isn’t responsible of us to continue funding programs or activities that aren’t significantly impacting student achievement," she said. "We believe that this budgetary redirection will ultimately help us see gains in this most important area of academia, the base of all learning.”