After the Weare School Board’s final meeting of the current fiscal year, the school administration now has some directions on what to restore to the 2008-09 budget.

Making their way back into the budget are two teaching positions for the second and fifth grades, to deal with enrollment bubbles in those grades; night and weekend custodial coverage to clean up after community programs; and one bus.

The world language teaching position at the Weare Middle School and the art teacher at Center Woods Elementary are still on the chopping block, according to school officials, something a few of those who attended the meeting on Tuesday, June 17, spoke against.

The school budget got a second wind when a total of 1,343 voters showed up at the polls for a second shot at voting in a proposed school budget.

The School District avoided its second default budget in a row by adding $240,000 to the $12.4 million default budget voted in March, a tactic which passed with voters the second time around in a 751-591 vote.

The School District’s operating budget for 2008-09 will now be $12,703,776, representing a tax rate increase of 52 cents per $1,000 of assessed value from last year. For a home assessed at $250,000, that’s a tax bill increase of $130.

“I guess we’re faced with two kinds of bad choices, here,” said Selma Al-Abbas, whose daughter just completed the sixth grade at the middle school and looks forward to her French class. “Is there any other thing that can be juggled or considered?”

Al-Abbas suggested cutting library, after asking her daughter’s opinion on the matter.

“We have a beautiful school and we’ve gone backwards in teaching. Foreign languages is a basic middle school curriculum,” she said.

Superintendent Christine Tyrie said the state Department of Education requires schools to have a library and media program. Cutting library could jeopardize the school’s accreditation status.

“One of the reasons that we looked at French is that it is not a required program for a middle school,” Tyrie said. “If you’re deficient, you have up to three years to address that. After that, it means you close your school down and you have to tuition every student out of the school.”

Tyrie said the art and world languages programs would be the easiest to integrate into the classroom setting. If the secondand fifth-grade teachers were not restored, class sizes would increase significantly.

School Board Chairman Matt Thomas said as the board looks at ways to save more money as the school year approaches, the world language position would be one of the first things restored.

“The point of this discussion is to see what direction we want to go. I don’t think by any means we’re setting this in stone,” said Thomas. “I don’t think we’ve ever set a budget in stone in the history of this town.”

Parent and teacher Kim Grattan said her kids, who attend Weare Middle School, are in upper levels and need extras outside the core classes to challenge them.

“I have two children who do excel and there is very little for them that goes above and beyond that basic curriculum, and French is one of those things that offers something extra,” Grattan said.

Grattan also pointed out that the elimination of the French program at the middle school will prevent Weare students from being able to reach AP French by their senior year at John Stark Regional High School.

School board member Marjory Burke spoke in favor of restoring the art and French teaching positions.

“I think that we need to expose our children to as much variety as possible to make them well rounded citizens for the 21st century. It pains me to know that we’re removing art and language,” Burke said.

Thomas said the school district is working with new bus route mapping software that will provide ways to consolidate and possibly eliminate routes, which could make some room in the budget by the fall.

The district may also end up saving money when it hires new people to replace retirees this year, who may have less experience and thus be on a lower pay scale.

Grattan said after the meeting she appreciates the difficult decisions the board has to make, adding it’s up to Weare voters to discourage cuts through their vote.

“It’s got to be up to the townspeople to pass a few budgets,” said Grattan.