By LINDA REILLY and VINCE SULLIVAN

UPPER DARBY Parents, teachers and alumni hit the ground running soon after Upper Darby School District officials announced plans to realign elementary and middle school curriculum and reduce staff at a cost savings of $4 million.

They mobilized, school by school, neighborhood by neighborhood, all in the name of the future of their children and what students would miss by not having the specials of art, music, library and gym as part of their school experience.

In May, close to 1,000 people attended two board meetings in a show of unity and to plan a full-court press for tonights budget hearing at 7:30 in the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center, Lansdowne Avenue.

Tonights meeting will be dedicated to comments from the public. A budget must be approved by June 30, and the board next meets on June 12. Depending on the number of commenters tonight, the forum may be extended to another meeting, and may require the convening of a special meeting later in June to approve the budget.

District officials laid the blame with Harrisburg and the cuts in education funding, the rising costs of charter schools and dwindling investment returns. At the end of the day, however, administrators made the decision to realign programs to cut costs.

Two Upper Darby High School graduates, Colleen Kennedy and Melanie Shanfield, established an online presence to address the issue and communicate the need to organize. With a website (saveudarts.org) and a similarly titled Facebook page, the group has reached out to thousands in opposition to the proposed curriculum realignment.

A group of parents from all over the township has organized to rally and correspond with elected officials from Upper Darby all the way to Harrisburg to find a solution that will preserve the arts.

We do not believe that taking time away from the art, music, library and gym programs will gain the teachers enough time to have the desired effect the administration is looking for to boost academic performance, said Lisa McNamee, a parent from the Primos section of Upper Darby.

The realignment proposal would integrate general art and music classes, along with library and physical education classes, into the core curriculum of classroom teachers at the elementary level.

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Public get their say in Upper Darby School District budget talks tonight