A Wordpress template consists of HTML/PHP with WP specific queries; you can use as much or as little javascript as you want. (And if you want my menu code, give me a shout - it's pure CSS, and it won't break if you add subpages, where almost every single template I looked at failed - or it's Javascript, which I dislike.

If a static site suits your need, by all means build one, but I found that I wanted to at least use different header and sidebar and footer files so I'd have to add a link only in one place... and by that point, you're not far from a basic Wordpress setup.

(I've got a set of amendments to make to my site - but I still like it overall.