Parents of high school students being tuitioned to Manchester schools may want to attend a meeting at Manchester Memorial High School on Monday, April 28, at 6 p.m., to discuss the proposed staffing and programming cuts the fiscal year 2009 Manchester school budget will bring.

School officials have been grappling with the gouging cuts after Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta requested the city’s Board of Aldermen reduce the district’s budget from $153 million to $140 million for the coming year.

Many teaching and administrative positions in all Manchester schools are being cut from the budget to realize the savings, including the eight assistant principals recently given notice of possible layoffs.

Music, art, ROTC, full-day kindergarten and athletics have also been cut from the budget, leaving many parents worried about the quality of education and level of character-building Manchester schools will now provide.

Many Hooksett students attend West High School, where the phasing out of Bedford students, thanks to a new high school in Bedford, has left a $7 million shortfall in expected revenues.

Auburn and Candia high school students are also tuitioned to Manchester high schools. Chris Martin, director of fine arts for the Manchester School District, holds one of the many positions being cut from the budget.

Eliminating this position puts extra duties on the even slimmer music staff in place, some of whom are also being cut.

“I think this community appreciates the arts. The community needs to speak out about what’s important to it,” said Martin.

Hooksett resident Tom Shepherd, whose daughter, Julia, 8, will one day attend a Manchester high school – unless Hooksett eventually decides to build its own high school, calls it an idea some residents support. “We keep paying more for education in Manchester and getting less out of it. It’s like any investment,” Shepherd said. “At some point, you have to evaluate the investment and say we’re not getting the return.”

Martin said it’s hard to say what else could be cut from the budget to save money when revenues have fallen so flat for the district.

“If I could think of a way for a public education to be a revenue- generating source, I would win a Nobel prize,” Martin said. “Unfortunately, we are dependent on the tax dollar and right now that’s not a healthy position for us to be in, given the state of the economy.”