JAFFREY, N.H. (MyKeeneNow) After voters across Jaffrey and Rindge rejected the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District’s proposed $33.5 million budget in favor of the nearly $32 million default budget, the district held a meeting on Monday where they unveiled an initial plan to cut $1.5 million.

Early into the meeting, SAU 47 Superintendent Reuben Duncan gave background information on what led the district to make certain cuts, with one of the figures showing that over 70 percent of the budget is staffing costs, and that the average teacher cost (salary and benefits) is roughly $95,000. 

“There are some cuts that can be made to supplies or subscriptions and things of that nature … when we’re looking at reductions, we’re looking at … staff cuts, over 20 individuals,” Duncan said. “Nothing here is what anyone wants.”

Of the proposed staff cuts, three come from Conant Middle/High School, four are elementary school teachers, four are teachers and seven are staff in the district’s pre-kindergarten program, one is a full-time library media associate at the middle/high school and two are part time library media associates at elementary schools. The other cuts are an athletic trainer, a sixth-grade case manager and another is a district-wide behavior interventionist, with the last two positions not currently being filled but part of the default budget.

Duncan says at the elementary level, the district normally likes to have a 17-to-1 ratio per classroom, but with the cuts classrooms will get larger. With the projected cuts, the estimated classroom sizes in fourth and fifth grade hover around 25 students, which Duncan said has happened before in the past from time to time, but now looks like “a little bit more of a new normal.” He went on to say that 25 students is the high for what the School Board recommends for class sizes in fifth grade.

Other proposed cuts from the budget include Universal Pre-K and the Little Orioles Center, which is the childcare offered to district staff, which Duncan said the district was hoping to develop a model to expand to the broader Jaffrey-Rindge community. Duncan said that the Center has been recognized statewide as an innovative way to retain staff, and that “it’s hard … in order to keep that [program] you have to cut staff [positions].”

Jimmy Gallagher, a resident of Jaffrey and a special education teacher in the district, says he has two children in the district, one who is in Pre-k and one who is in the LOC. Gallagher says both programs have made great impacts in the lives of his children, and that he’s seen the growth in his children both as a parent and as a fellow professional.

“To lose that program, I think the effect is just so terribly negative,” Gallagher said.

In the proposed cuts, the district’s Pre-K program would still exist, however the number of classrooms would shrink from six to two, which was highlighted as saving the district around $470,000. According to School Board Chair Lisa Wiley, this would bring back waitlists, and return the Pre-k program to being funded by the special education program. 

“[Universal Pre-K] has proven to reduce the need for support staff in kindergarten and first grade with these kids coming through because they’re prepped for school,” Wiley said. “We will still have a pre-school program … but that’s very minimal.”

Additions to the budget include a CMHS French teacher, a librarian, a sixth grade English teacher, money for sports (including travel, coaches and referees) and Chromebooks, which Duncan says is integral as “more and more education is happening with the use of technology, at least from the third grade on up.”

In sports, Duncan says that part of the proposal includes the introduction of more intramural sports in the district, or if “someone has games and so forth and is willing to come here, we’d be able to make sure that competitive nature is there.” He says this approach would keep it so the varsity programs would travel as much as possible, and that teams traveling may have to double up on the same bus which would take “tight scheduling.”

The School Board will continue to discuss where to make cuts and most likely vote on the budget at their next meeting.

“We do have a little bit of time to take input [for] the Board to have some conversations,” Duncan said. “We are going to have to act fairly soon … this is as balanced as we possibly can be, I think, and it looks unbalanced and terrible.”