SALEM — The end of the year at Collins Middle School is different this June.

The signs of moving are everywhere: White, red and green labels. Cardboard boxes. Books. Piles of posters. Globes. Desks. Chairs. Recycling bins bursting with papers.

The school is emptying out 15 classrooms by the end of the day today, vacated by budget cuts that have translated into the elimination of a team of teachers in grades six to eight. After the last day of school today, Collins' three-"wharf" system, established 14 years ago, will be no more.

"It's hard to see things closing," said longtime Principal Mary Manning.

Next year, teachers and students will be reorganized into two new, renamed wharfs, or groups. Class sizes will be larger, but manageable — up from an average of 18 students this year to 23 next year.

"The new (teacher) teams are blendings of the people who survived the cuts," Manning said.

Twenty-seven classrooms will be moved around this summer. The reorganization has been a Herculean task.

"I'm normally here a lot," Manning said, "but this has been full speed, nights and weekends. There's still the normal end-of-year workload, plus moving and merging the wharfs."

But that's not the hardest part, according to Manning, who has been at the helm of Collins since the mid-1980s.

"The emotional part of this has been much more intense than the logistical part," she said. "We're losing a lot. If you find out your job is gone, yet you're busting to pack up an entire classroom — it's a lot to ask of people. It's a sad situation."

She said the middle school is cutting about 16 employees.

"They've given their all here, up to the last day," Manning said as her eyes welled with tears. "I'm devastated I couldn't have saved more of them, I really am."

She is grateful, however, to have retained all of the support staff, including the conflict resolution and adjustment counselors.

"These are the people students need in this day and age," she said. "Some of the things these kids come to school with are just unfathomable — unbelievable backgrounds — and the classroom teachers just can't do it. It's beyond them with the number of students, and training-wise."

The silver lining?

"It pushed everybody to do a big spring cleaning, which was really needed," she said.

The new Collins

Manning sent home a notice to parents this week about the changes and said she's planning to give her students their new classroom assignments today.

The present sixth-graders in the Derby, Union and Crowninshield wharfs will be scrambled and mixed into the two new teams.

The current seventh grade, since they have only one year left at Collins, will be divided differently. Derby and Union will each become one of the two new wharfs, and the current Crowninshield wharf will be split and distributed into the two new wharfs.

"That way, everybody will know somebody," Manning said.

They picked famous Salemites to name the new wharfs — Forrester and Ingersoll. Simon Forrester was an Irish seaman remembered for providing dinner for the poor on holidays, and Capt. Samuel Ingersoll was an owner of The House of the Seven Gables, whose family is also said to be linked to the Underground Railroad, according to Manning.

"We researched a little, looked through old maps and poked through some books to find names people will recognize — and people who were good," she said with a laugh.

Of the 15 classrooms being emptied, two will be used by a Collins special education program so it can take advantage of additional space. Superintendent William Cameron Jr. said yesterday that some other empty rooms may be used for other district special education programs, but nothing has been finalized.

"For now, all the seventh- and eighth-grade rooms in Crowninshield will be locked," Manning said.

In addition to classroom teacher cuts at Collins, a gym teacher and a music teacher have been eliminated, as well as paraprofessionals (aides). Assistant Principal Ed Foster is leaving after 13 years, so his position will be filled by someone splitting duties between Collins and the Nathaniel Bowditch K-8 school, which is losing its full-time assistant principal in the cuts.

One cut Manning particularly dreads is in the school library. Collins lost one of its library aides during the midyear budget crisis and will lose the second one now, leaving the library staffed only by the librarian.

"It's such an enormous hit," Manning said. "If the librarian is now chained to the desk, she won't be able to teach and set up all the research and blogs for students."

Currently, the library aide works a later shift so the library can stay open until 4 p.m. Next year, it will close at the end of the school day.

"It's been open till 4 every day, which was a godsend," Manning said. "Lots of our kids have no computer at home and no ride to the public library."

Otherwise, Manning said all the programs at the middle school will remain intact, albeit reorganized, which is key. The school has also retained its full staff of technology teachers, who teach engineering and robotics.

"That's important because it's not the kind of work you can do with a higher number of kids," Manning said. "When you have a million robot Lego pieces around to build projects, you need to keep it small."

Another thing that will remain constant at Collins is Manning's leadership.

She paused during an interview yesterday to make an announcement over the PA system. "Do not, I repeat, do not move boxes between rooms. You've been spotted — we know who you are," she said, illustrating her characteristic sense of humor.

Manning has worked in the Salem schools since she started as a gym teacher in 1972. A sign on the closet in her office reads, "Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints."

"It's hard to change, but I also think it's hard not to change," Manning said. "Change is good — I want to keep a positive outlook."