The point of the Lawrence school board’s budget-cutting knife will nick students and staff throughout the district.

The board has a prioritized list of $4 million in potential cuts to balance the 2003-2004 budget. But before decisions are made about those 82 cost-saving options, the board wants to hear from the public.

“The community can now see what goes first and what goes last,” said Scott Morgan, school board president. “I’m sure it will be tweaked.”

He said the board would fine-tune the list at its meeting April 28.

Some of the bigger cuts under consideration:

• $210,000 by reducing library staff and supplies.
• $223,000 by dropping French and German in junior high schools and American Sign Language at high schools.
• $56,000 by eliminating nearly all eighth-grade sports.
• $110,000 by downsizing sixth-grade band and orchestra.
• $268,000 by ending gym, art and music instruction for kindergartners.

¢ List of proposed cuts in the Lawrence school budget for 2003-2004¢ More stories on the school budget¢ More stories on school closings¢ More stories on the school bond issue

“Cuts will be made that impact every single child in this district,” said Cindy Yulich, who was elected to the board this month but doesn’t take office until July 1.

Declining enrollment and escalating operating costs in the district combined with a reduction in state spending on public education has driven the current board to seek ways to cut spending.

The board gave preliminary approval Monday to the biggest cut on the list — closure of East Heights and Centennial elementary schools. Closing East Heights, Centennial and Riverside — the Riverside closure vote was in January — could help the district save more than $1 million annually.

Morgan, who was defeated in his re-election bid and will leave the board in July, said it was unclear how deep the board must go into its priority list. That line won’t be drawn until after the 2003 Legislature settles school-finance issues and Lawrence teachers agree to a new contract.

Spending rollbacks have folks on edge.

Mikayla and Dixie Price, who are in second and fourth grades respectively at Centennial, said they were upset their school was sacrificed.

“I like my teachers, and they’re all real nice,” Mikayla said.

Dixie said, “They will have to split our friends up. I’d like to be able to finish sixth grade there.”

Helen Alexander, parent of a Lawrence High School sophomore, said the board should reject a recommendation from elementary principals to eliminate sixth-grade band and orchestra. The proposal on the board’s list would keep the program but in a reduced form.

If the introductory music program was dropped, she said, only students with parents who could afford private lessons would be involved in junior high and high school bands.

“It honestly could be relatively elitist,” Alexander said.

Leslie Campbell, a librarian at Prairie Park School, said the quality of education would be harmed by deep cuts in library programs.

“It will affect potentially every patron in the school district,” she said.

Steve Grant, athletic director at Free State High School, said eliminating after-school activities would strip students of opportunities enjoyed by their predecessors. But if elementary closures could block some of those cuts, he said, then it must be done.

“I’m behind you 100 percent,” he said of the school board.