Time For Talk Nearly Over, Lakeville’s School Board to Approve Cuts Tonight

For the past three months, Lakeville’s residents, teachers, students and advocates have stood before their school district’s School Board and asked its members not to cut or eliminate their beloved programs to help bridge a facing the district.

Tonight, those people will discover if the programs they lobbied for will be cut, or spared, when the Lakeville School Board votes to approve the budget adjustments at its regular meeting. But it’s likely that some of the fine arts programs in the district will be eliminated. All of the district’s are cut in the most recent draft, as is fifth-grade band, middle school industrial technology and a total of 8.4 middle school music-teaching positions.

But after eight years and more than $20 million in previous budget trimming, the school district’s administration said there’s no more budget fat to trim.

“We have to cut $15.8 million. And there’s no question we’ll be impacting students with these cuts,” Superintendent Gary Amoroso said at a previous meeting.

Before most meetings, and often with tears in their eyes, or anger in their voice, people have pleaded to with the board to save art, industrial technology, athletics, band, choir, social studies, geo-space systems, and a slew of other programs.

After weeks of budget workshops, brainstorming and discussion, the board will likely vote on a budget adjustment draft that cuts more than $6.8 million for the 2011-2012 school year. That’s a bit more than 6 percent of the district’s entire $102 million budget. Those cuts carry over to the next year, plus inflation, to reach the $15.8 million in cuts needed.

While not official until voted upon, here's a look at what's likely to be cut:

Elementary schools

An , which means attendance boundaries will be changing. By closing a school, 11.30 full-time full-time equivelancy teaching positions will be eliminated. The district will save $750,000 a year by closing a school. No school has yet been selected.

Also, a total of 22.75 FTEs are being cut throughout all the elementary schools, including all six of the district’s art specialists as well as the fifth-grade band instructors. Three physical education teachers will also be cut. Another 9.5 FTEs will be eliminated, potentially raising the classroom sizes in third-grade to 32, and in grades four and five to 35. The board worked to keep class sizes in grades K-2 the same as they are now.

Middle schools

In Lakeville’s three middle schools, 25.8 FTE teaching positions are being eliminated, including the three industrial technology teachers, 8.4 FTEs from the music department, and another three from health. The activity fees will also be increasing for extra-curriculars, .

High schools

All told, 24 FTEs will be eliminated from the high schools, but no specific programs are eliminated. Using federal stimulus dollars, the district will still fund the Early Bird option for students who wish to pursue world languages and music.

The board is also keeping but with a new model that significantly increases fees for participants.

Other

There are also cuts to the special education department as well as transportation with the reduction of busing routes.

The board will discuss and then vote on the proposal at 7 p.m. tonight at it’s meeting held at the .