School Superintendent Richard Silverman said he has informed the Department of Education of the planned cuts.

“They’re horrified,” he told the school and finance committees last night.

“This is criminal,” school board member Paul Meoni said. “There has got to be a way that someone can step in and stop this.”

School officials were already faced with cutting $3.7 million, most of it resulting from the defeat of a Proposition 2½ override in the March 27 town election.

Last night, Silverman presented an additional $586,000 in cuts to pay for a new alternative program at the middle school and high school for about two dozen disruptive students, three new teacher aides for safety and discipline at the middle school and additional special education costs.

His proposal calls for closing the Devine School, moving kindergarten classes to the other four elementary schools and moving preschool classes will move to the Kennedy Elementary School.

Busing would end for kindergarten students, Spanish courses would be eliminated at the middle school and 4 1 2 positions would be cut, including two administrators.

School officials are planning to go through with the creation of a full-day kindergarten program that will be funded through a state grant and tuition payments.

Silverman asked the school committee to approve the package of cuts that were discussed for two months before the election. Those include eliminating nearly 50 employees, about one-tenth of the school work force, and school sports and nearly all student activities.

“We’re not recommending any changes to that list whatsoever,” Silverman said. “There’s nothing on this list that we should be cutting.”

Silverman said the school department must balance its budget, whatever the cost.

“We have no choice,” he said.

The Devine School would be the second closed in recent years. The Tower Hill School, the former early childhood center, closed in 2005, with kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes moving to the Devine, which until then had been an elementary school.

The school committee is scheduled to vote on the budget cuts at its meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the high school.

Silverman and other school administrators painted a bleak picture of what the school system will look like starting in September.

Because of the teacher cuts at the middle and high schools, reducing the school day by one period for students is being considered. Students would either report to school before the second class period or leave before the end of final period.

Silverman said the schools would not have the staff needed to supervise the large study halls, creating a safety problem and violating the minimum number of classroom hours required by the state.

If school enrollment remains steady at 3,450 students, especially at the elementary grades, Silverman said the average elementary class size will be close to 29, with many individual classes having more than 30 students.

He said a proposed redistricting that will also be acted on at Thursday’s meeting may need to be changed to balance class sizes.

When special education costs started to climb this year, school officials froze spending on maintenance projects as well as purchases of textbooks and materials last fall. Those accounts have already been cut for next year, he said.

The budget does not provide for higher energy costs, additional special education costs or unexpected enrollment increases.

“There’s not going to be anything to freeze,” Silverman said.

If the budget runs short, school officials may be forced to lay off staff in the middle of the school year or cut the number of school days, violating the state’s 180-day requirement and triggering likely legal action by the teachers union.

The cost of the high school athletic program is $407,000. Other student activities at the high school and middle school add another $82,000.

Silverman said sports and activities have many positive benefits for students, and he doesn’t want to see them eliminated.

“But we need to protect the core of what we’re doing – teaching and learning. We’re doing a terrible disservice to our students.”

The superintendent suggested taking the floor of town meeting to increase the proposed school budget of $29.2 million.

School committee member Tamara Pitts questioned the need for creating an alternative program for disruptive students over funding school athletics.

Silverman said the alternative program was seen as a major need by participants in the schools’ strategic planning conference. He said it would also save the cost of placing some of these students in special education programs.

While the proposed school budget is the same as this year, the cuts are needed to pay for contracted raises for school employees, higher special education costs and increased expenses.

Fred Hanson may be reached at fhanson@ledger.com.