Keokuk, IA – The Keokuk School Board has cut roughly $500,000 from the 2011/2012 budget.
The panel agreed to eliminate three elementary classrooms and to not replace some retiring teachers and staff members.
Superintendent Lora Wolff does not believe any current employee will have to be laid off due to the number of retirements.
The school board also agreed to use one-time money to close the roughly $1.4-million shortfall.
The one time money includes about $450,000 in federal funding, $250,000 in cash reserves, and about $250,000 in extra savings from the previous budget.
Wolff says the federal funding, alone, saved 6-7 jobs in next year's budget.
She says using that much one-time money, though, will make things difficult for the district in the very near future.
Wolff says early estimates show that the district is facing a roughly $1.6-million shortfall in the 2012/2013 budget.
That number could get worse if Keokuk's enrollment continues to decline.
Wolff says that is why the administration will start meeting, later this month, to work on the 2012/2013 budget.
Vacancy
Meanwhile, the Keokuk School Board has a vacancy.
Brent Gatton has stepped down after nearly a decade on the panel. His resignation letter pointed out how his job was making it difficult to attend meetings.
Gatton's seat will be on the ballot come September, along with three other board members.
It is unclear whether the board will fill the vacancy prior to the election.