Textbooks.  The pillows at the end of a long day, the means of education, and the often forgotten.  This last was a widespread problem at SDA at the end of the fall semester.  “Now more than $19,000 in textbooks are missing,” said Assistant Principal Ryan Yee.

This is a first-time problem for SDA and only started after the end of the fall semester, affecting teachers and students. This problem followed the district’s cutting funding for the program that kept track of all checked out textbooks.  Teachers were then told to keep track of the checked out textbooks themselves.

“The lack of books has affected this spring term from the past fall term.  It hasn’t been a problem in my class, but I know teachers that have had this problem,” said math teacher Paul Brice.

“I have a hard time getting frustrated with the teachers whose records were lost, because the district did not renew the program they had been using,” said math teacher Donn Boyd.

Some teachers have lost their textbook checkout records and some have failed to turn in lists all together.  For this reason, the administration is projecting a possible amount of $30,000 worth of textbooks missing by the end of the year, said Yee.

This has led to a shortage of textbooks in classes that is affecting students of all grade levels.

“There is a book shortage in my French and AP World classes,” said sophomore Kira Gaby.

Freshman Romy Biegel had a similar problem with her classes.  “People in my French class lose their textbooks a lot,” said Biegel.

Many students now have to bring their textbooks to school, because there aren’t enough books for a class set.  This has led to many disgruntled students, as it is one more heavy thing to carry.

“It really sucks because the textbooks are just one more thing to carry,” said freshman Lali Martinez.

“I don’t like carrying my books back and forth,” said freshman Cameron Bridges.

The missing textbook issue is bigger than just having to carry books back and forth.  By law, the school is required to provide textbooks to all students.  This means that all the missing textbooks will have to be replaced regardless of whether students pay for them or not.

“If we have to pull money from other areas, some programs could cease to exist,” said Yee.

However, some still have a positive outlook on the situation and believe the situation will be fixed.

“I know there is a shortage of textbooks right now, but eventually I know they’ll be returned,” said science teacher Jocelyn Broemmelsiek.