Before the meeting with the Town Council on the school budget this evening (now at the Portsmouth Middle School, 7pm) you may want to take a peek at some of the background material on the impact of the proposed $1.2M cut. The materials from last night's School Committee meeting have been posted on the district web site, and the this, for me, is one of the key grafs on the problem with the Council's approach. From the Budget Presentation page 9, "Constraints":

"The sheer magnitude of the cut: the proposed reduction is 3.5% from a budget that already has per pupil expenditures ranked 31st. out of 36 in the state, has one less school than last year, and two less schools than two years ago, has not raised the educational supplies and materials budget line in two years, and received salary concessions from all employees last fiscal year."

Read the whole presentation (PDF) here. You can read the rest of the materials from last night's meeting here.