The Austin School Board eliminated or cut back hours for 18 teachers in the school district.

At a special meeting Thursday, the board took a roll-call vote for each teacher and unanimously passed almost all of the recommended cuts.

The cuts are, in most cases, more of a reorganization of school resources. Class sizes and scheduling issues mean that personnel needs to be shifted or some positions eliminated to make room for different positions that officials say fulfill a more pressing need.

This year, the school district is eliminating more specialists in the elementary schools and adding regular classroom teachers.

"In (grades) one through three, we need students with their teachers as much as possible,"

Human Resources Director Chris Picha said.

This means students will have less time in art, music and physical education classes next year.

When you combine the new hires with the cutbacks, the total number of positions lost is 2.7.

This will help off-set a loss in funds expected from the state after their budget is finalized, Picha said. This session of the legislature is scheduled to end on May 19, but it could go to a special session if differences between the House and Senate are not resolved before then. Once the district has those final numbers, some teachers might be hired back or have their hours increased again, Picha said.

She said the district was shooting for $300,000 in savings through cutbacks in a number of areas including eliminating positions. Right now they are at about $230,000.

School districts make these sorts of cuts without a final budget in hand because by July 1, the whole process needs to be finished. The decisions must be made ahead of time so the teachers affected have an appropriate amount of time to challenge the decisions if they choose. Picha said many districts made these decisions in mid-April, but the board members in Austin wanted to wait to see if more concrete budget figures would be available in May. She said waiting this long was pushing the time limit.

Board member Larry Andersen voted against a cut to the high school marketing department. His vote was the only vote against cuts at the meeting.

"I know how much good that program does for kids, and I hate to see it cut back," he said.

Matt Merritt can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:matt.merritt@austindailyherald.com