Proposed district-wide school budgets cuts totaling to about $1.4 million were announced by Superintendent Gary Burton last Monday night, at the bi-weekly School Committee meeting. Cuts at the high school alone would total a little less than $60o,000.

The proposal is now available online for the public,  and must be amended and approved by the School Committee to become final. If passed, it would result in the deepest budget cuts in recent memory.

The education budget would shrink by 2.33%, to just over $30.3 million. This would be the first time the Wayland schools’ budget has shrunk since 1981.

Burton said that although it was difficult for him to “take apart a school district”, one has to “understand the economic times.” If passed, the budget will be enacted in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, which lasts from July 1, 2010 to June 30 2011.

Universally, personnel makes up 80% of the school budget and will face the heaviest cuts. However, non-personnel expenses will also be reduced, meaning fewer funds for supplies and materials at every school.

No academic programs nor athletic teams would be cut, with the exception of the Middle School Latin program, which would be phased out over the next two years. However, teachers, clubs, and sports coaches would be affected.

According to high school Principal Patrick Tutwiler, district administrators were given a target total number for reductions, after which they were given the task of determining specific cuts in their respective schools. Tutwiler, Vice-Principal Bayard Klimasmith, Dean of Students Scott Parseghian, and the departments heads all were deeply involved in the process.

“This is not a surprise,” said Principal Tutwiler. “The message that was given to us was that the ’08 – ’09 year was going to be bad, that the ’09-’10 year was going to be worse, and that ’10-’11 is going to be very bad, even worse. We’re not out of the woods yet. This is actually going to get worse.”

Next year, FY 11, will be the first year that student enrollment will decline at the high school, by 28 students. Though small, Burton says that this number is significant because it marks the beginning of a wave of declining student enrollment that both the middle and elementary schools have already felt.

Burton wrote in his annual budget message that, in drafting the budget, he “recogniz[ed] a district-wide decline in the number of students enrolled and national and state economies that were weakening.”

He also said that there would be no salary increases for non-union personnel or for administrators, including himself. Union personnel would receive a pre-negotiated salary increase.

On another note indirectly related to budget cuts, Burton also confirmed that there will be no student parking due to new high school construction.

Some have suggested that the reason the cuts are so severe is because the Finance Committee did not want to ask the town for an override after already asking for funding for the building of the new high school.

Tutwiler doesn’t think that’s the case. “It shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone. We were talking about the budget scenario for this year, last year. There also is the fact that the district is experiencing a significant downward trend in enrollment.”

Cuts at high school would be most severe
Over the past two years, significant cuts have already been made at the elementary and the middle school levels. This year, the kindergarten through fifth grade programs moved to a two and a half school model, while the clusters in the middle school were reduced from three to two in the seventh and eighth grades.

Because of this, the cuts at the high school level are more drastic than at other school levels in town. While the budget is down 2.33% across the school system, the high school will face a 6.8% cut if Burton’s budget passes.

The administrators first were given the job of determining what extra expenses could be taken out from the budget, such as supplies or unused professional development budgets, according to Klimasmith. “Then there’s just hard choices,” Klimasmith continued. “Then we were looking at teachers and support staff.”

In the high school, the most visible cut would be in academic positions. If Burton’s budget is passed, 1.0 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) English teachers, 0.5 FTE classics teachers, 1.0 FTE science teachers, and 0.4 FTE world language teachers would be cut.

FTE cuts means that classes will be eliminated in given departments to equal that percentage of a teacher’s workload. For example, in the English department, the cut of 1.0 FTE would mean about four English classes cut. Remaining English teachers would likely have their class load increased from four to five, reducing the amount of free time they have to meet and conference with students.

This will also lead to courses being cut. Principal Tutwiler says that he is preparing a report for Superintendent Burton and the School Committee on what courses he recommends be cut. The report will be released by December 21.

The proposal will likely affect three WHS English teachers because of the way teachers are “bumped.” The Teacher’s Union contract requires that teachers are let go based on seniority, meaning that those who have been in school system the longest have claims to positions. In some cases, this may mean transferring teachers who have seniority, but whose programs have been eliminated, to other departments in which they are certified to teach. Based on this system, at least one middle school English teacher would be moved to the high school under the new plan, replacing one or multiple part-time teachers.

Another planned cut is the reduction of the position of Athletic Director from a full-time job to half-time. Because the AD is responsible for sports programs in the 6th through twelfth grades, high school programs would take about 40% of the cut, and the middle school programs 10%.

Other positions would be very much affected. Burton promised no cuts to technology, but the Media Department head stipend would be eliminated, as would several secretarial positions.

The Guidance Department in particular would be heavily affected. The proposal would remove one guidance department secretary, who is responsible for filing student information, sending transcripts and test scores to colleges as students apply, and a variety of other essential services. “We would have to change dramatically the way we service kids,” said department head Marybeth Sacramone at Monday’s meeting.

Clubs, too, would feel the crunch. The proposed budget would reduce stipends for several club advisers. In other words, club advisers for these clubs would no longer be paid, though the clubs themselves could continue if advisers volunteered to stay on for free.

French Club, Spanish Club, Outdoors Club, Asian Cultures Club, Business Careers Club, and the Amnesty International adviser would all have their stipends eliminated. The adviser for Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), would also have their stipend eliminated because of a merger of the club with the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (SAPC). The elimination of these stipends, which range from $1,000 to $3,000, would combine for a total saving of more than $16,000.

Athletics would be affected by the loss of several coaches, but there will be no reduction in the number of teams. The only head coach elimination would be a winter track coach. The loss of this coach would be compensated by combining the boys’ and girls’ teams. One assistant coach would also be cut from both wrestling and tennis.

Burton also made it clear that he came very close to eliminating the instrumental music program, but in the end decided to keep it. He said that he program “adds dimension to the school system,” and is “thriving at the elementary level.”

Besides cuts, Burton is also recommending two new fees. The first would be a concert fee. Like the fee required to watch a football game, the concert fee would require attendees pay a fee to come watch high school concerts. The second fee would be a rental fee imposed on the swim team for their pool, comparable to the rental fee paid by the ski team to use the Weston Ski Track.

Middle School and Elementary school cuts
The Middle School will also lose a cluster in the sixth grade, bringing the number of clusters in all grades to two. The 6th grade rotating block schedule, which previously had its own pattern, would be unified with the 7th and 8th grade schedule template. This comes as a new middle school principal is expected to be picked sometime around April after a full-scale “intergalactic” search, in words of the Superintendent.

At the elementary school level, the largest cuts will come in the library, where there will be only one full-time librarian for all three elementary schools. He or she will be helped by teaching assistants at each school.

Principal Tutwiler believes that with enough public attention, distribution of budget cuts could be changed, though the total monetary reduction will likely stay the same.

UPDATE: The proposed budget would also remove three department secretaries at the high school, two of whom actually cover two academic departments each. The secretaries are responsible for organizing and ordering school supplies, purchasing and managing textbook stores, copying class handouts, and the logistical details of preparing final and midterm exams. Without secretaries, teachers will be personally responsible for these tasks, reducing their time for grading and meeting with students.