Lakeville schools budget cuts spare a few jobs but make tough trade-offs

The Lakeville school board approved major cuts Tuesday night, slicing $6 million from its 2009-10 budget.

The board spared some jobs and programs that were in jeopardy last month, including fifth-grade band and elementary-level guidance counseling. But sheltering those programs required hard trade-offs, including the decision to tap into reserve funds.

And tough times are still ahead. The district faces an estimated $5 million shortfall next year, which could put many programs that were spared this week back on the chopping block.

"It doesn't solve anything. It just pushes the problems out another year," said board chair Judy Keliher.

But the district faces so many unknowns in the next few months -- state and federal funding levels, contract negotiations with its two biggest unions, a possible levy referendum in the fall -- that Keliher said board members tried to avoid dismantling programs in the hope that they can be saved next year.

The first budget draft that the school board looked at last month would have cut more than 60 staff positions. Now that figure is down to 35, of whom 12 are classroom teachers, said Superintendent Gary Amoroso.

The board avoided some cuts by tapping into its fund balance, which the district uses to maintain a smooth cash flow and pay for such unexpected costs as high gas prices. The board now plans to use about $700,000 from its fund balance, drawing down those reserves to about $3.9 million, Amoroso said.

The board also doubled cuts in technology funding to $500,000, a move that means the board's goal of replacing old school computers every six years will have to be put on hold, Amoroso said.

The district got some help when it learned last month that it will get $400,000 in state per-pupil funding that hadn't previously shown up on accounting documents from the state, he said.

Other cuts run the gamut from special education to the district's textbook budget. The district plans to start charging students $150 a year to ride the bus if they live less than 2 miles from school. Activities programs for secondary students were hit, too. High school athletes, for example -- who used to pay the same fee to play any sport -- will have a new sliding scale that charges more for sports with longer seasons, Amoroso said.

The board plans to tackle cuts for 2010-11 this summer. "It's important for our community to realize that this is step one of a two-year process," he said.

The list of potential cuts for next year is sketchier, but the district is likely to talk about closing an as-yet unidentified elementary school. Principals also have told the school board that reductions next year could mean the end of "Early Bird" high school courses as well as the team-teaching structure of middle school classes.

But some parents think that families are already trimming their own household expenses too much for a school tax increase to pass.

"I think it would be more responsible for the school district to think creatively and find ways to make cuts," said Kelly Bruneau, who has a son at Century Middle School and two daughters who went to high school in Lakeville. "They could try it" -- and Bruneau said she'd support a levy -- "but I'd give it kind of a bleak possibility of passing."