MANCHESTER — Middle schools would lose their Spanish program and most middle schoolers would get one language-arts class a day under proposals floated Monday by school district officials.

The cutbacks are part of the shuffling of teachers that district officials say is necessary in light of the expected layoffs, retirements and resignations of 188 teachers.

Assistant Superintendent Michael Tursi said Monday that district officials are refining their plans for how to deal with a $150 million school budget proposed by Mayor Ted Gatsas.

“This discussion isn't about bring back teachers, it's about reallocating the resources we have,” he told the school Committee on Curriculum and Instruction.

The cutbacks also entail halving the 10 high school information-and-communication-technology teachers, and elimination of Latin and German instructors in the high schools.

District officials plan to seek out local colleges, which could possibly make up for a loss of the two languages, officials said. Also, VLACS, the state-run Virtual Learning Academy, could be an option.

Middle schools stand to lose the most — 25 language arts teachers, according to Tursi.

Currently, middle school students are required to take five core classes, which includes a reading class and a writing class. Tursi recommended that the two be reduced to a single language arts class.

Under his recommendation, each middle school would get three additional teachers to provide a second language-arts class for struggling students.

Doing so would draw teachers from elementary and high schools, increasing class sizes there.

Fifteen foreign-language teachers have also been targeted for layoffs. Tursi said it comes down to middle school or high school Spanish, and he would opt for high school Spanish because of college requirements.

He said first- and second-year Spanish classes would be large, and Superintendent Tom Brennan said officials may just have to implement a cutoff.

Meanwhile, a review of the positions targeted for layoffs show that 26 English teachers received notices, the highest category involving a single subject. Only one other category of teacher, elementary school teacher, was higher, at 31.

Memorial High School teachers received the most notices, at 23, followed by Central High School at 18 and Hillside Middle School at 17.

Peter Perich, acting Memorial principal, said he doesn't expect Memorial to be 23 teachers short next year. He said district officials will even out the layoffs across the district.

But he expects to see many new teachers in August. Under the school district contract, officials have broad latitude to reassign teachers when layoffs take place. But by the end of June, teachers should know what school they'll be at next year.

“We're not sure who they're going to be sending us,” Perich said.

Perich said students have already signed up for classes, but not all classes will likely be available.

“Something's got to go,” he said. “I'm not sure what will until we find out what teachers we have and what teachers we don't.”

mhayward@unionleader.com