Cassie Hobbs of Auburn said she might have gone with other friends from Auburn Village to Derry for high school had she known the sports and art classes she loves at West High School would be struck from the school’s budget for her senior year.

“I wouldn’t be in this district if it weren’t for these programs,” said Hobbs, 17, who plays on West’s junior varsity soccer and varsity lacrosse teams and has a growing interest in photography.

“I hope that you think this over,” Hobbs told Manchester’s Board of Aldermen at the city’s budget hearing for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Thousands of concerned parents from Manchester and its contracted school districts, including Candia, Auburn, Hooksett and Bedford; teachers, many anticipating pink slips; Manchester taxpayers and dozens of students wearing school colors and raising signs showed up at the hearing on Monday, April 28, quickly overflowing the 550-seat auditorium at Memorial High School.

“We estimate that there was close to 2,000 people there,” said Manchester Fire Chief James Burkush, adding the auditorium and cafeteria were both filled to capacity with the rest spilling into the gynasium, which was about half full.

The Manchester Fire Department herded hundreds of others toward the cafeteria and gymnasium to watch the proceedings on projection screens.

The hearing started shortly after 6 p.m. and finally wrapped up around midnight, with the majority of the budget discussion focusing on the school cuts.

The $140 million school district budget Mayor Frank Guinta included in his budget preparation is $13 million less than what Manchester’s Board of School Committee asked for, largely due to the reduction in revenue from Bedford’s high school students transition out of West to their own high school.

This year, the Manchester School District is running on a $147 million operating budget. The $153 million request was a 4 percent increase in the budget.

The cuts mean a level tax rate for Manchester, but also the loss of many teaching positions, eight vice principals, athletics, music and art classes, NJROTC program, performing arts, and virtually all other funded extraand co-curricular programs.

The academy structure that West High School was planning to implement next year has also been canned.

Hooksett School Board Chairman Maura Ouellette spoke around 10:30 p.m., warning aldermen and the mayor that cutting these programs and eliminating teaching positions that would inevitably increase class sizes, which would constitute violations in the Manchester’s tuition contract with Hooksett.

The cuts may affect the accreditation renewal of Manchester schools, also a breach in contract, Ouellette said. “With the proposed budget, Manchester will certainly put its accreditation status at risk, thereby jeopardizing students competing for slots in the highly competitive college arena,” Ouellette said.

She added cutting such programs would affect Manchester students’ college applications and scholarship eligibility.

“These programs not only offer a student the chance to excel, it gives them a reason not only to attend school but to do well in school,” Ouellette said.

The Hooksett School Board’s attorney sent a letter to Guinta and aldermen Chairman Michael Lopez informing them of this point.

Ouellette added the cuts would increase class sizes to levels beyond the state’s accepted levels, the minimum being 30 students per class or 24 students for lab classes.

“The ramifications of an ill funded school budget are far reaching and almost impossible to correct at a later date,” Ouellette said.

Elaine Hobbs, mother of Cassie Hobbs and Chairman of the Auburn School Board, agreed with Ouellette’s statements and added that the cuts may overwork the school district administration and remaining staff at the schools as well as affecting students’ well-roundedness.

The Auburn School Board’s attorney also sent a letter to the Board of Aldermen outlining their concerns about violating their tuition contract.

“So, if the cuts are to take place, you may be in breach of contract, which would allow for Auburn, Hooksett, Candia and Bedford to opt out early without penalties and/or (those districts) would not be responsible for the capital component of the contract,” Hobbs, one of the last speakers, told the Board of Aldermen, adding that could further affect the budget.

Candia School Board Chairman Ed Caito said he could not make the meeting, the board being represented at the meeting by other board members who did not speak or issue a statement.

“I really feel that the mayor and the acting superintendent should try to get beyond the rhetoric and both be willing to roll up their sleeves with their own people and say let’s work on this together and come up with a solution,” Caito said, adding Mayor Frank Guinta and Superintendent Henry Aliberti have taken “extreme positions” on both sides of the coin.

“There’s no question that the economic environment is different, but there’s got to be some middle ground,” Caito said.

Prior to the meeting, Ouellette said Hooksett sends 560 students to Manchester schools.

The Hooksett School Board has been searching for buildable land to possibly go to voters with to construct a high school in town.

“We knew that it would be coming up,” said Ouellette about Manchester’s school cut, “that’s why we’re looking at sites for a new high school.”