School superintendent proposes $8 million cuts to meet mayoral budget; board approves plan with targeted changes

Dr. Jennifer Camille, superintendent of the Manchester School District, presented a package of reductions aimed at meeting an $8,000,050 target to align the district’s tax-cap-compliant budget with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) allocation.

Camille opened her presentation by saying, “We centered on students first, in particular adhering to our class size policy,” and described a plan that spreads reductions across departments while protecting class-size targets where possible. She said the proposal relies in part on using one-time funds and expected savings from reduced contract services to avoid deeper cuts to classroom teachers.

The superintendent told the board the plan includes a district-level reduction of about 7.8 percent and a school-based reduction that averages roughly 1.2 percent per school, which translates to 22 school-based positions in the district plan. Camille cautioned the board that the district office reductions “will save approximately 15 to 17 teachers across all of our schools” because of the loss of capacity to redeploy staff.

The proposal also recommends using approximately $3.7 million in one-time funds to preserve staff for the coming year, reducing the district’s reserves to about 6.5–7 percent. Camille said the district will cross-check any board ideas against grant terms, contract language and enrollment projections before taking action: “If the funding comes from a grant, we will not realize a general fund…