The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School expects a deficit of more than $300,000 for the current school year, its finance manager said Monday, forcing school officials to make cuts to the supply budget and scramble for any other savings to be found in the budget.

Regional High School finance manager Mark Friedman announced the projected shortfall for the fiscal year 2009-2010 budget at the school committee meeting Monday.

The likely shortfall of about $316,000 was attributed to a number of cuts in state funding to the high school. State aid from the Chapter 70 program is expected to be $58,000 less than the school budgeted for; funds for transportation under Chapter 71 will be about $9,000 less than expected; and reimbursement for special education programming, known as Circuit Breaker funding, may fall $147,000 short of what the school budget planned.

Other contributing factors included a charter school reimbursement of approximately $14,000 less than expected, and $43,000 from the charter school tuition assessment that was not planned for in the budget, due to more students choosing to attend the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. Another notable item affecting the budget is the interest income; interest gained on this year’s investments is projected to be some $40,000 less than anticipated.

According to Mr. Friedman, the deficit accounts for less than 2 per cent of the school’s overall budget. “It’s not insignificant to us, but at this point we feel comfortable . . . that we have enough initiatives in place that we will be able to cover it,” he said in an interview following the meeting.

The school is considering several areas where they may be able to make adjustments to save money. “We’re not looking to address this shortfall with just one item,” said Mr. Friedman.

The school will reduce departmental supply budgets for books and other supplies, to address approximately 20 per cent of the shortfall.

Mr. Friedman also said they will look to save on their employee medical benefits budget. They do not intend to cut benefits, but expect to save, for instance, because some new staff with individual policies are replacing staff who had full family coverage.

“We’re being very careful to try not to affect any benefits for any staffing positions,” he said.

The committee also discussed closing the accounts on building and maintenance projects that are complete or nearly complete, including a roof window replacement project and an exterior painting project. When the bills are cleared, up to $10,000 budgeted but not actually spent, could become available.

“We’re very confident that we will be able to manage this $316,000, but it obviously can’t be absorbed in a completely painless way,” Mr. Friedman said at the meeting.

“What we’re trying to do is get a good picture of where we think we are on day one, and track things very carefully as we move forward,” said Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss. “What we’re trying to do is hone in on spending and monitor it very carefully.”

The officials do not have definite figures from the state yet showing how much funding will be cut.

“We really have to address the worst case scenario,” said regional high school principal Steve Nixon.

He said cuts needed to address this year’s budget shortfall will have an impact on preparations for the fiscal year 2010-2011 budget, which the committee must begin to craft soon. “Theoretically, we can’t cut the same thing twice,” he said, anticipating continuing budget restrictions. Certain things they might consider cutting in next year’s budget may have to be cut this year.

Several committee members were concerned with cuts to student programming.

“I want to make sure that we’re not taking money away from the classrooms here,” said committee member Susan Parker.

“From where I sit, the number one responsibility is the kids,” said committee member Les Baynes.

Mr. Friedman said the school would not allow the shortfall to affect the students. “In everything we’ve looked at [to address the deficit], there is nothing that would have directly affected programming,” he said. In fact, he said, they are still implementing some new programs for students.

In other discussions, the committee approved salary arrangements for a reading instructor, a STAR program counselor, and a writing lab instructor. All three are one-year-only positions, funded largely by grants.

Instructors from the high school’s vocational department gave presentations on their programs: automotive technology, early childhood education, building trades, horticulture, career and work-study, culinary arts, and seamanship, which was new to the department last year.

Seamanship Instructor Brock Callen, who is also a director of Sail Martha’s Vineyard, reported a successful first year, and high hopes for the future of the program. Students follow one of two tracks in the program: admission to a maritime university or directly to careers in the maritime industry. “2009 has been a banner year for those seeking employment in the maritime industry,” said Mr. Callen. “We see [the seamanship program] continuing to grow. We’ve got a good healthy group in there this fall.”

The vocational program is the second largest in the Cape and Islands, with approximately half of the high school student body involved. “I think it’s so wonderful [that] the students here on the Vineyard have [this] opportunity,” said Ms. Parker. “There are so many other kids I know in other communities that would have been successful students if they had had these kinds of outlets.”

The committee approved the resignation of four staff members. Michael Joyce resigned from his position as athletic director to take a position teaching biology at the high school. Music teacher Melanie Sroka-Chaunce resigned as a part-time music teacher to teach music full-time at the West Tisbury School. Math teacher Danielle Nicholson and Spanish teacher Stephanie Pavao also resigned.

The committee also announced that Matt Mulowski, who runs the STAR Program, will receive an excellence in teaching award from the Harvard Club. The STAR program (Students and Teachers Achieving Results) is an in-house alternative program designed to help ninth and tenth grade students who have difficulty adapting to the mainstream programming at the high school.