Skipping a second vote and going straight to contingency is one 2009-10 budget option the Worcester school board will examine tonight, Wednesday.
At the same meeting, board members are expected to look at a revised agriculture program that would allow the district to continue its Future Farmers of America chapter.
Voters last Tuesday rejected the Worcester budget 207-168, the only school budget voted down in the region.
The $7.6 million proposed budget would have raised spending by $104,000, giving a tax levy increase of 2.9 percent.
Superintendent Gary Kuch said Sunday that there’s little to cut from the budget if the district were to resubmit it to voters.
“Looking at the numbers, I don’t see much else that could come out,” Mr. Kuch said.
Going to a contingency budget, which would not go to a public vote, would trim some items, he added. Contingency would curtail field trips, eliminate equipment purchases and freeze non-contractual salaries.
“But we didn’t have much equipment in there anyway, and you’re only talking about four or five people not under contract,” Mr. Kuch said.
“That’s the way I’d go, but it’s board’s decision.”
Ag and tech teacher Karen LaBombard would be eliminated under the proposed budget, and the layoff has worried some that the ag program and FFA, both popular among students, would end.
But Mr. Kuch said he’s met with school officials and a state FFA leader to restructure the ag program and keep FFA.
“We think we can have an ag program with the teachers we have on staff now,” Mr. Kuch said. “I think it’s a viable plan.”
“It would allow us to keep FFA. From the beginning, it was never our intent to cut FFA.”