Recent proposals to slash school funding to help with the state of California's budget deficit of more than $34 billion have had community leaders scrambling to examine their districts' operating budgets to cut costs wherever they can.

Benjamin Picard, deputy superintendent of the Sunnyvale School District, says that while the budget cuts are only proposals, "if they do come forward as is proposed, there will be across-the-board cuts that could affect a whole array of support services to staff and students."

At the board meeting on Jan. 16, Picard presented to the school board an outline of the situation that looks grim for students, faculty and administrative staff.

The board has already taken immediate action to offset the damage and to preserve jobs and services for students and teachers. Members have approved placing an immediate freeze on hiring, minimizing spending on school supplies, books, conferences and other school materials.

Steve Rowley, superintendent of the Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD), has issued an immediate freeze on hiring, overtime, travel, staff development activities, supplies and materials, including textbooks and other instruction materials. "We have some safeguards built in to help internally, so we have a couple of exceptions," Rowley says.

The cuts are directed at "basic aid" schools, or schools that receive money based on property taxes in their areas. For both the Sunnyvale School District and the Fremont Union High School District, Davis' proposal will take away the $120 that each district currently receives for each student with perfect attendance in the school year, in addition to an 85 percent cut in excess property taxes. The cuts would take away about 12 to 13 percent of each district's operational budget.

Rowley says the cuts will occur across the board but adds, "Some schools may get more basic aid than others and therefore might take a bigger hit." He hopes that no one school will take a larger cut than any other schools in the district.

Rowley speculates that the cuts will affect teachers' jobs in the coming year. "As far as overall staffing, the less seniority you have the more at risk you are. If the cuts go deep, administrators are certainly prone to get cut, as are teachers," says Rowley. The district must issue a pink slip or give notice to teachers of an "intent not rehire" for the following school year by March 15.

Sunnyvale School District board member Linda Kilian says that in her 10 years as a board member, she has seen the budget fluctuate. "Whenever this kind of situation arises, nobody has any good ideas about what to cut, but everybody knows what you shouldn't cut. We can all see that it's going to be painful, but nobody likes to give up anything."

Kilian foresees an examination into class size reduction, because the system is not designed to keep pace with the costs, she says. In order for a class to have a limit of 20 students per teacher, more teachers must be hired. But with the freeze on hiring, class sizes are going to be pushed beyond the current limit.

"I think what we're going to see is a lot of lobbying for a ratio between students and teachers. That would allow them some flexibility," Kilian says. Both the Sunnyvale School District and FUHSD plan to lobby the legislature to minimize the proposed cuts, which have not been finalized.

Superintendent Rowley says that FUHSD is working with other groups to coordinate lobbying efforts. "We're going to inform parents about the situation and ask them to be in contact with our local legislature. We're hoping that they'll be a small handful of legislators that will put their foot down."

But, he says, everyone must come together to fight this battle. "I don't think our community is going to tolerate it at all. We're going to do everything we can to hold hands together on this," Rowley says.