CRANSTON — As the dust settles on next year’s school budget, this much is clear: The gifted and talented program, the elementary music program and most of the elementary guidance positions that faced possible cuts will survive for 2009-10.

So will the hockey program at Cranston High School East.

What next year’s budget doesn’t do is pay for all the same people and positions.

The ranks of gifted and talented teachers and guidance counselors will each be cut by one, and the budget cuts a special education director, two high school librarians and three middle school secretaries, said Michael A. Traficante, chairman of the School Committee.

The budget also eliminates middle school sports, and it reduces the allocation for student activities at the middle schools and high schools by 25 percent.

At $121.6 million, the budget is one that leaves some needs unmet, school officials say.

Assistant Supt. Peter L. Nero, who takes over as superintendent July 1, said his biggest concern is the lack of a full-time person to coordinate efforts to meet the state’s new proficiency-based graduation requirements.

Overseeing that effort is more challenging in Cranston, which has three high schools: Cranston East, Cranston West and the New England Laborers/Cranston Public Schools Career Academy.

“Most districts brought in a full-time person,” Nero said, while Cranston has had “someone who was doing six other things.”

For anyone who questions the size of next year’s budget, Nero noted that neighboring Warwick, with roughly the same number of students, has a $165 million budget for the coming year.

Elliot Krieger, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said Warwick’s per-pupil cost for 2007-08, the latest year for which state figures were available, was $15,795. Cranston’s was $13,959, slightly less than the state average of $14,462, he said.

While Nero focused on graduation requirements, city officials might be more interested to know that next year’s school budget does not pay back any of the $4.5 million the School Department borrowed from the city to cover a deficit during 2007-08. The School Department and the city are still in court, battling over the School Department’s claim that it was underfunded.

Robin Muksian-Schutt, director of administration for Mayor Allan W. Fung, said Fung was not expecting the money, but would like to see it repaid.

“The city faces its own fiscal crisis and it’s money that’s not there,” she said.

In addition to the cost-saving measures in next year’s budget, school officials say they also hope to save money through teacher retirements. Some retirees might not have to be replaced, because department chairs and program supervisors will be teaching more classes under a new teachers contract, Traficante said. And in cases where the district does have to hire, the new people will most likely come in at lower pay grades, he said.

Just how the 25-percent cut to student activities will work out remains to be seen. Nero said principals will decide how the money is spent, but he was hopeful that teachers who oversee the activities might agree to reduced stipends that would allow more programs to continue. Teachers union President Frank Flynn said he is willing to talk about the matter but for now, at least, is operating under the assumption that that the stipends will remain the same, and principals will have to decide which programs survive.

“It’s below minimum wage if you figure out the number of hours that people put in for these things,” he said.

redgar@projo.com