The affected schools will, however, get a half-time resource teacher, San Jose Unified School District spokeswoman Karen Fuqua said.

"It'll definitely be a challenge for the schools because the number of activities will still be the same, but the schools have less resources to work with," Fuqua said.

The district is also axing six administrative positions at the district office and cutting $500,000 to school grounds maintenance, which may include laying off groundskeepers, Rosemarie Pottage, the district director of finance, said.

The measures are part of the district's ongoing efforts to cut costs in the face of declining enrollment and an anticipated $40 million cumulative budget gap in the next four years. The budget for the 2005-06 school year was adopted at the district's school board meeting on June 16.

With a slew of cost-cutting and cost-saving measures, the district has pruned its projected $9 million budget deficit for the 2005-06 school year to about $4 million.

To bridge the shortfall, the district is tapping its reserve funds, Pottage said.

"But that also means the district is reducing reserves to below the required level," she said.

Under California state law, the district is required to keep reserve funds at 2 percent but, because enrollment has dropped under 30,000 students, the district is now required to keep reserves at a 3-percent level. With this year's budget needs, the district's reserves have dipped to 1 percent.

"There is legislation pending to allow the district to bring its reserve level up to 3 percent over a period of three years," Pottage said.

Pottage pointed out that there could be additional changes to the school budget, depending on how the state budget shapes up later this year. Educators in California have been urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to restore Proposition 98 funding.

Passed by voters in 1988, Prop. 98 established a minimum dollar amount the state must provide to schools as a stop-gap measure against the state taking money from schools during its budget crises.

Last year, the governor struck a good-faith deal with the Education Coalition--a statewide group of education associations--to cut education funding below the mandated level in 2004-05. Under the agreement, the state would then fully fund the schools in accordance with Prop. 98 in the 2005-06 school year.

The governor announced last week that he was calling a Nov. 8 referendum to win popular approval for three key measures. One measure would slap spending restrictions on the bleeding state budget, another would leave it up to judges--not lawmakers--to draw political boundaries, and a third would make it harder for teachers to earn tenure.

If the governor derails Prop. 98 funding, the school district will have to continue its budget-tightening measures, Pottage said.

In the past two years, the school district has closed six schools. In 2004, three elementary schools were closed, saving the district $1.5 million. Earlier this year, the board voted to close Randol and Cory elementary schools and Steinbeck Middle School next fall, which will save the district an estimated $1.9 million per year.

In April, the board also decided to eliminate bus routes, increase the distance some students will have to walk from their homes to the bus stops and charge some students bus fees. This is expected to save the district $830,000.

Other cost-cutting measures the district has introduced include staff reduction, increased class sizes in grades six through 12 and the elimination of third- and ninth-grade class size reduction.

While the district has avoided increasing class sizes or cutting the sixth period at middle schools this year, Pottage said these are scenarios the school district might have to consider in the future if the budget situation does not turn around.