ANOTHER high-stakes stand-off over the future for schools looms as Herefordshire Council pitches £1.6 million of cuts to its education budget with small schools and nurseries among the hardest hit.

Schools and communities now have just two weeks to take in a consultation over the cuts, a move backed by the Schools Forum at its meeting on Monday.

The council says the cuts – which slash spending on small schools and private, voluntary, or independent nurseries – are the only way a £1.5m shortfall in the 2011/12 education budget can be made up.

Herefordshire Association of School Governors (HASG) has already branded the cuts a “knee-jerk nightmare scenario” that leaves small schools and nurseries at the mercy of minimum funding guarantees set by the Department of Education.

HASG chairman Steve Grist said: “This from an authority that has no clear strategy and has not had any clear strategy for the past five years. The fact they are giving us two weeks to respond effectively means they are not interested in our response.”

HASG is now organising “urgent talks” involving schools and nurseries to assess what the cuts could mean and draw up alternatives.

Mr Grist says that on the initial evidence, redundancies and even closures are a very real possibility.

“We will oppose this vehemently.

The council shouldn’t be surprised to see protests on the street again,” said Mr Grist.

In 2008 a swathe of school closures and amalgamations proposed by the council to ease projected budget pressures was put off in the face of widespread public protest.

The expected shortfall in the 2011/12 schools budget is estimated at £1.5m – a budget loss of £500,000 because of falling rolls and a £1m increase in spending commitments including £482,000 on out-of-county special needs placements.

The schools forum was told that a cut of £1.m offered the authority “a little leeway” in its spending plans. The forum put the cuts out to consultation without debate.

The cuts would take £250,000 out of funding set aside to protect small schools, funding that had been frozen by the council until this year after the 2008 protests.

Budgets for disadvantaged schools and personalised learning programmes also take £250,000 hits, with special needs funding, per pupil funding, and school grants among the other big victims.

For the first time, the cuts target nurseries, too, with a £72,000 saving sought from spending that supports a network of private and voluntary nurseries.

Responses to the cuts are due in by February 11 for a final decision to be made by the council in mid-March.

à Consultation regarding controversial plans to rearrange secondary and post-16 education in Wales begins this month.

Gwernyfed High School, near Hay-on-Wye, will host one of the first meetings on February 9.

Powys County Council has revealed various options for teenagers’ education, which could also affect John Beddoes School in Presteigne.

The Secondary School Modernisation Board published several future models – some of which involve 13 schools merging into eight or less – last summer.

A meeting at John Beddoes takes place on March 23 and a questionnaire is available at powys.gov.uk/schoolmod ernisation.