When the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education casts a vote on the adopted budget for the 2012-13 year next week, they’ll set the financial course for dozens of buildings across the district.

But administrators and staff from a single APS high school have pointed to the impact of the approximately $505-million budget — which includes about $5 million worth of cuts — and claim the budget will have a disproportionate effect on their students. Among cost-cutting measures in the budget for the coming year is a financial shift for William High School that totals about $280,000. The step, labeled a “budget realignment” by the district, will translate into more students at the pilot school that currently boasts a study body of around 300. It will also mean that the school will not replace a full-time employee position for the coming year.

“We have entered into a good faith effort to reduce our budget,” William Smith Principal Jane Shirley said during a public townhall meeting held at the district’s Professional Learning and Conference Center on June 5. “Small schools do cost more. A 10 percent (cut) is devastating to our school in one year. If you cut out everything from underneath us … we will not be able to maintain the 95 percent graduation rate that we got this year.”

The move came after board members scrutinized the budget for the small school, which opened its doors to students as a pilot school in the 2008-09 school year. Before the shift, William Smith was an alternative school, a campus seen by some as a building of last resort. According to APS officials, the budget for the school has not been cut in the past four years.

Administrators said that as other high schools across the district dealt with cuts of about 11 percent over the past four years, William Smith’s per-pupil rate remained relatively constant.

“We spent this school year looking at programs and evaluating them. All of us have looked at this budget book backwards and forwards. That was part of the thing that started with William Smith,” Board President Mary Lewis said during the meeting. “There’s nothing wrong with the program at William Smith. It is a model that increases student engagement that has some extreme pluses. (But) for me, it’s about equity across the district.”

High schools, middle schools and elementary schools across the district have dealt with a series of steady cuts from the past three school years, reductions that have added up to an estimated $75 million. But during the budget town hall held last week in advance of the board’s upcoming vote on the adopted document, administrators from the school said such a dramatic reduction for one school is bound to affect graduation rates and performance.

William Smith’s pilot school status means that in exchange for greater flexibility in how it spends money, the school must show results. In recent years, the school has shown marked gains in graduation rates, test scores and attendance figures. Those advances could be in jeopardy as a result of the budget changes, William Smith administrators said during the meeting.

But board members insisted that the change was the result of an anomaly in funding, that the new structure puts the school on par with other buildings that are comparable in size and scope.

“I know that each and every one of us have looked at this budget, have played with it, have digested it. It’s not an easy decision for us to come up with the budget. We have over 33,000 students and over 4,000 employees. We must meet the needs of each and every person somehow,” board member Jeanette Carmany said during the meeting, pointing to schools that have been trimmed by more than 30 full-time employees in the past three years. “We need to look at this in an equitable way … I think it behooves us to look at numbers and come up with the best budget we can for the entire district.”

The board is set to vote on the adopted budget during its regular meeting to be held at 6 p.m. on June 19 at the Professional Learning and Conference Center, 15771 E. 1st Ave. in Aurora.

Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707