The School Committee is now exploring whether closing one of the district's schools will be necessary, after members learned that next year's proposed school budget would need to be reduced by $933,000.

The news came when members recently met with the Finance Committee and were informed that, despite previously reducing the budget, the town was still short funds, School Committee Chair Geoff Swett explained during the committee's Wednesday, April 4 meeting.

The proposed school budget is now approximately $25.1 million, which was reduced from approximately $26 million.

"I'm not going to rose-colored-glasses this," said Swett, who was re-elected to the committee on April 3. "This is awful."

The closure of the Wareham Junior/Senior Cooperative School, which services at-risk students, is being considered. That would save the district $452,000.

In an effort to ease the impact of cuts it knew would need to be made, the School Committee proposed a Proposition 2 1/2 override in the amount of $780,000 to reduce teacher layoffs and a debt exclusion totaling $341,000 to fund textbooks and technology.

Proposed early in the budget cycle when the situation already looked grim, the override and debt exclusions (articles 20 and 26 on the April 23 Town Meeting warrant) would need to be approved both by Town Meeting voters and by the larger electorate at the ballot. Both would increase property taxes in different ways; both are unpopular among voters.

Without the overrides and debt exclusions, the district will need to lay off more than 20 teachers and cut scores of other programs and personnel.

Now, severe cuts are anticipated even with the overrides and debt exclusions.

In addition to the closure of the Cooperative School, proposals include:

• Cutting all sports and extracurricular activities, for a more than $400,000 savings
• Eliminating instructional leaders, who were put in place last year to provide support for teachers, for $345,000

Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch and School Committee members have vowed to take a hard look at the entire budget before determining how to proceed.

"If we're going to cut, we've got to cut equitably, and we've been cutting [academics] for years," said School Committee member Cliff Sylvia, explaining that sports and extracurriculars, though important, would have to be considered.

School Committee members suggested that perhaps several areas could be reduced — possibly allowing the Cooperative School to stay open, though servicing fewer students.

"I just think that no stone should be left unturned," said Wareham High School student Jessica Hanson, the School Committee's student representative. "If that means maybe doing a portion from each [suggested area], then maybe that has to be done."

Hanson added: "I wish you guys luck."

Closing the Cooperative School completely, School Committee members argued, would almost certainly increase the drop-out rate.

Cutting sports and extracurriculars would have yet another impact.

"Anyone who thinks we can cut [sports and activities] and not impact enrollment is living in another world," said Swett.

The $933,000 reduction is the latest development in what has been a difficult budget cycle for the town, which is struggling with increasing fixed costs such as health care and decreasing revenue and state aid.

The School Committee originally approved a $27.1 million budget, which it called "adequate," but not ideal. In late March, it voted to reduce its budget to $26 million, recognizing that the town and the School Department were both faced with making difficult cuts.

In other School Committee business:

• The School Committee welcomed new member Michael Flaherty, who won a seat in the April 3 election. The committee opted to keep Swett as chair, as he hadn't been in the position for a full year. Rhonda Veugen remains vice-chair. Cliff Sylvia was appointed secretary, taking over for Rachel Gillette, who did not seek re-election.