Proposals to trim the Clay County, Fla., school budget for fiscal year 2009-2010 could cause wholesale disruption of both the educational and extracurricular programs in the district, including athletics.

Superintendent Ben Wortham presented School Board members and a room full of concerned educators a list of proposed cuts that would reduce expenses by more than $27 million in the coming school year.

Included in those proposals:

• a saving of $11 million by eliminating up to 256 allocations district wide
• 3 percent salary cuts to save $5 million
• eliminate all school supplements at a savings of $3 million

The last item could spell problems for the county’s athletic programs as well as band, art, music and other after-school activities where teachers receive supplements.

Asked whether he thought cutting the supplements would affect sports programs, Wortham said he hoped it wouldn’t.

“Coaches have real heart and compassion for what they do,” he said, indicating he thought coaches would continue to devote time to their sports.

However, Liz Crane, president of the Clay County Education Association, disagreed.

“I would hope they wouldn’t do that,” she said. If they did coach without pay, it would be hard to get the supplements back in the future, she said.

Deputy Superintendent Denise Adams emphasized that the board  could reject the across-the-board supplement cuts and pick and choose which supplements  are trimmed.

The suggested cuts are part of a plan by the school administration to restore a “healthy” 3 percent fund balance to the district budget plan and in anticipation of at least a 5 percent reduction in state funding that could come from the next session of the Legislature.

The board will meet again in a workshop to study the proposals, and present savings of their own, at 4 p.m. Feb. 9 a the Teacher Training Center at Fleming Island High School.

Wortham would like to identify cuts by April so that finance director George Copeland will have time to craft a budget by the end of the school year.

Other significant savings could be achieved, Wortham and his staff proposed, by:

• Eliminating elementary instructional substitutes — $1.5 million
• Resort to one health plan (an HMO) — $1.5 million
• Close two schools — $1.2 million
• Cut all district level and schools’ operating budgets by 10 percent — $600,000
• Reduce facilities budgets — $500,000
• Restructure DROP program — $500,000

Two weeks ago, Wortham proposed $10.5 million worth of cuts with the elimination of 115 positions but a continuing worsening economic climate forced the administration to make the cuts deeper.

Wortham said Clay County lost enrollment this year for the first time he can remember in his 40 years working with the district. And the district likely won’t grow any in the coming year either.

“We may have hired too many teachers,” Copeland said.

Wortham is hoping that attrition will take up a significant portion of the 256 positions he thinks need to be eliminated next year. Those positions will include administrators, teachers and support staff.

School Board members encouraged anyone with cost-cutting ideas to submit them. School board email addresses can be found on the school district web site at www.clay.k12.fl.us/school_board.htm.

See the video of Liz Crane, president of the Clay County Education Association.