With a potential budget gap of up to $16 million in next year’s financial plan, the Kent School District is looking at potentially painful cuts at every level, including the possible elimination of all vocal-music and physical-education specialists at the elementary school, all seventh-grade and junior-varsity athletics at the middle schools as well as ninth- and 10th-grade sports teams and several high-school junior-varsity teams.

The budget concerns also could mean increased class sizes in every grade, and the virtual elimination of professional development for teachers and staff and the mid-day and activity buses run by the district.

The possible cuts were prepared as part of a list for district residents to prioritize during a pair of community meetings to be conducted Feb. 24 and 26.

“We’re all hoping we don’t have to contend with this,” Board President Jim Berrios said, “But this is extremely serious.”

The potential cuts, totaling approximately $30 million, will be prioritized by the public, the school board is hoping as a result of the meetings. But the final decision about what to cut and what to keep lies with the board.

The list of potential programs to be chopped comes on top of an administrative list of reductions that includes up to $4 million in potential cuts, including $370,000 in central administration, $454,000 in instructional services, $514,000 in security issues and more than $1.2 million in school-administration costs.

After presenting the administrative list to the board Feb. 11, Superintendent Barbara Grohe said making such cuts leaves the district with the “bare bones minimum you could do and still survive” and warned the district could be at “considerable risk” of not being able to manage all of its state audit requirements.

Because the proposed administrative cuts ran so deep, board member and former president Bill Boyce asked administration to widen the range of cuts to allow the district to pull back from a “bare bones” approach, which he said was too bare for the board’s comfort.

One program not facing the chopping block is the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, though it was originally included as part of the board’s administrative cut list due to the Marines threatening to pull funding for their half of the program at the end of the 2009-2010 school year because it does not meet the minimum enrollment requirements.

With the Marines set to pull their support, the board originally opted to pull district support – $82,000, for one of the program’s teachers – at the end of this school year.

But a broad showing of support at the meeting convinced the board to give the program one more year, allowing the ROTC students to try and recruit enough kids to meet the minimum requirement.

However, not all programs will be so lucky as the district struggles to balance its books in an era of falling revenues.

Basing their budget numbers on the governor’s proposed budget from late last year, the district estimates a loss of up to $4 million in state funding and expects to need to find another $10 million in order to raise teacher salaries to a more competitive level and shore up underfunded programs.

The district is currently in negotiations with the teachers’ union, whose contract expires in August. One of the top concerns of the union is Kent’s status as one of the lowest-paying districts in the region.

Late Thursday, the district released its lists for the community work sessions, complete with dollar figures and impact statements for each cut.

The board has been very open about the need for community input to help prioritize which programs are important to residents. Many potential cuts also require bargaining with one or more unions because a shift of workload or other consideration.

For example, eliminating all vocal music and physical education specialists at the elementary school level could save the district more than $4.3 million, but would require teachers to teach their own state-mandated physical education classes, as well as making different arrangements for teacher-planning periods.

An additional $1 million savings could be achieved by moving elementary band to outside of the school day.

As for sports programs, the district estimates it could save $679,000 by eliminating middle school athletics, though the district acknowledges the potential for increased attendance problems and dropout risks.

Among the other choices facing residents and the board is the potential closing of one of the district’s middle schools at an estimated savings of $1.1 million. Also being scrutinized are building custodians, who could see their schedule shift from a 12-month schedule to 10 months, at a cost savings of $250,000.

Increasing class size by two in the elementary schools could save the district an estimated $2.8 million per year while increasing classes by two at the high-school level could save an additional $2.6 million.

Another alternative is reducing the middle-school day from six periods to five, the level funded by the state, at a savings of $2.25 million.

Eliminating mid-day kindergarten bus routes, high school transfer buses, activity buses, the Meeker bus, Hi-Cap transportation and transportation to the Technology Academies could also save the district $740,000.

The district even included on the list to be considered a four-day school week (to save in utility and transportation costs) and reducing the teacher year to 180 days.

Board members were clear that the list of potential cuts is approximately twice as large as necessary in order to give community members a choice of programs from which to choose and all were insistent that public input was necessary to steer the district through its financial difficulties.

They also remained hopeful that the Legislature’s budget would restore some of the cuts proposed by the governor, meaning the cuts in their own programs would be as deep.

The final budget decisions are scheduled for late March.

The Community Work Sessions are scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at Kent-Meridian High School and 7 p.m. Feb. 26 at Kentwood High School. For a complete list of community priority choices, including dollar figures and potential impact, visit http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/ksd/cr/2009-10budget.html