No art, music and gym for kindergartners.

No sixth-grade band and orchestra.

No junior high wrestling and cheerleading nor high school golf and gymnastics.

No pay for coaches and sponsors of just about every sport and extracurricular activity.

These were among more than 125 cost-cutting options totaling $5.8 million presented Tuesday to the Lawrence public school district’s budget committee.

If all of the proposals became part of the district’s 2003-2004 budget, they would amount to a 10 percent reduction in elementary, secondary, special education and administrative spending.

Some members on the budget committee turned pale as principals and administrators explained alternatives.

“The harsh reality is there are only a couple suggestions that are palatable,” Wayne Kruse, a budget committee member and president of Lawrence Education Assn., said after the briefing. “The rest of the cuts directly impact students.”

The budget panel will meet again Tuesday to discuss the options. Members plan to forward recommendations March 10 to the school board.

Call for consolidation

Austin Turney, the board’s vice president, said these cuts would be so detrimental to the district’s mission that he planned to propose East Heights and Centennial elementary schools be closed this year.

Both were earmarked for consolidation, but their closing was to occur after passage of a $59 million bond issue that would build additions to New York and Cordley schools to accommodate the student transfers.

Turney said the district could save $1.4 million annually by closing East Heights, Centennial and Riverside schools in May. The board has already voted to shut down Riverside.

By consolidating now, Turney said, the district could avoid disturbing cuts in valuable academic and extracurricular programs.

Lawrence High School sophomore boys basketball coach Darrin Wegner, center, discusses upcoming games during practice at LHS. Both Wegner and assistant coach David Platt, at left, teach social studies at LHS and receive supplemental income for coaching. A package of budget cuts proposed by Lawrence school district administrators and principals includes the supplemental contracts for two high school basketball coaching positions.

“Closing schools is inevitable,” Turney said. “Disconnect closing schools from the bond issue in your mind.”

Consolidation of elementary schools is the most controversial issue in the current school board election and in public debate about the bond.

More than a month ago, the school board asked the budget committee to help prepare a priority list of possible budget savings. The board took that step because Supt. Randy Weseman expects a decline in state funding to the district and an increase in district expenses for utilities, insurance and salaries.

It won’t be clear how deep the board must go into the budget-reduction list until the 2003 Legislature adjourns.

Cuts wide, varied

Cordley Principal Kim Bodensteiner presented options for slicing $1.7 million from elementary school budgets. The plan was drafted by a task force of elementary principals.

Their package calls for elimination of the equivalent of two-dozen full-time jobs in music, counseling, secretarial, nursing and library staff.

The largest pieces of their plan would save $277,000 by dropping sixth-grade band and orchestra and $271,000 by ending art, music and gym instruction for students in kindergarten.

“It’s difficult to watch them dismantled,” Bodensteiner said.

Mick Lowe, principal of West Junior High School, had the chore of offering a list of $1.7 million in secondary-school reductions.

His task force started by recommending the district cut sports coaching staffs, eliminate golf and gymnastics in the high schools and drop wrestling and cheerleading in the junior high schools. Task force members also would delete high school drama assistants, extra pay of the marching band directors and courses in American Sign Language and Japanese.

Library aides and money for library materials would be dropped along with Scholars’ Bowl and Model United Nations clubs.

Class sizes in secondary schools could be enlarged to save about $500,000, but Lowe said the district ran the risk of making it impossible to deliver the curriculum.

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In all, he said, two dozen certified teachers could lose jobs.

“These cuts are deep and far-reaching,” he said. “It’s really devastating.”

Rolling the dice

Bruce Passman, the district’s director of special services, outlined $1.3 million in cost-containment for the special education budget.

He first recommendation, which would save $226,000, is a gamble, he said. The district last year paid private school tuition of a student with disabilities because the district couldn’t provide required services. He suggested the district not maintain a contingency fund for that expense.

“It’s a little risky,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll not encounter a situation like that.”

He would reduce the special-education staff by the equivalent of 24 full-time positions. To trim $275,000 from the budget, 16 paraeducators working with special-education students in classrooms would be let go.

These cumulative changes will negatively influence the education of students, Passman said.

“We’re part of the system, so we have to be part of the solution,” he said.

Sandee Crowther, the district’s executive director of planning and program improvement, said $1 million in cuts were proposed for the central administration.

Three administrative jobs with salaries that total $200,000 annually would be eliminated, she said. They are director of vocational education, director of assessments and a supervisor of special education.

In all, the equivalent of 14 full-time jobs would be cut in the administrative department.

Scott Morgan, school board president, said the presentation of possible budget adjustments would send a strong message to the community.

“It will bring home the severity of the situation we’re confronted with,” he said. “This talk about dismantling programs should send a shiver up the spine of anybody who cares about public education.”