The superintendent of schools has spent the last three weeks meeting with district staff and brainstorming creative ways to cut the lean budget. Now she and the board are reaching out to the community for a helping hand.

Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Deborah Flores and her staff are responsible for slashing half a million dollars from this year's budget immediately and still have millions to go over the next couple of years. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered a blow with a proposed budget that requires all state departments, even education, to whittle their budgets down by 10 percent.

In the wake of the "most significant cut in public school funding in almost 30 years," Flores is preparing for the worst case scenario, meanwhile, hoping for the best.

"We are very sorry," Flores apologized to the two dozen members of the public during a two hour Thursday evening study session, the most crowded session in months. Among the audience were Gilroy High School Principal James Maxwell, the three middle school principals, and two elementary school principals. "Some people will be upset, parents and staff," she continued. "But we have a fiscal responsibility to make sure we have a balanced budget and provide for the educational progress of students."

"We tried to be fair in our proposal and we are very anxious to hear from you," she said to the rows of listeners. "There isn't a lot of fat in our budget, I can tell you that with assurance, and we need to reduce this year's expenditures by $500,000."

She went on to discuss a list of 34 tentative items that could reduce expenditures, several of which cut six digit figures from the budget. Big savings would result from a reorganization of the district office's administration, eliminating class size reduction from third grade classrooms, eliminating elementary school music and physical education classes, reducing the middle school day from eight to seven periods, increasing class size ratios at Gilroy High School and eliminating in town school bus stops.

Notably, Flores and upper level district staff are looking inward and believe they can cut $389,000 by tweaking the district office's infrastructure. The elimination of the assistant superintendent of human resources position from next school year's budget will save an additional $95,000.

But contrary to the hope that the cuts would be deflected from the classroom, students will suffer from the district's tightened purse strings.

"It was naive to think this wouldn't touch the classroom," Trustee Pat Midtgaard added. "A lot of these cuts will impact the classroom."

Currently, schools receive almost $1,000 per pupil for each child in grades K-3 who receives instruction in a class of 20 or fewer students. However, smaller classes call for more teachers. Eliminating class size reduction for third grade classrooms throughout the district and increasing ratios from 20 to 32 students per teacher means 12.5 fewer teachers and $480,000 worth of savings.

"I would not recommend this if we were not in this situation," Flores said of the "painful" decision. "I don't want to make this recommendation but we can't find anything else."

"Class size reduction is expensive but very valuable to students," said Eliot Elementary Principal James Dent. "Even a 20 to one ratio isn't low enough to impact students with extra needs."

Dent remembered the challenges he faced when he taught a fourth grade class of 30 students. When leading a line of students that stretched halfway across the school, he remembered thinking, "How am I going to impact every single one of these kids?"

By law, the district has to send layoff notices to teachers by March 15. Flores is working with the Gilroy Teachers Association to compile seniority lists by credential type and duration of employment with the district. Because of seniority, third grade teachers will not necessarily be affected. But teachers with the least seniority will be.

The second hit to elementary schools eliminates six teachers from the physical education and music program, which includes band. A staunch advocate of the arts and fitness and the mother of a fourth grade son who will directly be affected by the elimination of the band program, Flores expressed personal and professional remorse for this decision.

"We were forced to look at areas that we would never normally cut," she said. "We have to look out for the greater good of the district."

Another hefty cut, shaving a period off middle schoolers' days, could save the district almost a million but will probably result in the elimination of electives or less time spent on language arts or math.

The thought of losing his school's elective program was especially distressing to South Valley Middle School Principal John Perales. After throwing his efforts into improving the school's elective offerings, he was concerned for families that rely on public education for their child's daily dose of culture.

"When cuts like this happen, it creates equity issues," he said of families that can't afford to send their kids to after-school dance or music lessons. "Many people will never have that opportunity. How many musicians are we going to lose?"

After the list of suggested cuts was presented, board members were asked for their input.

"I really think it's a shame," Trustee Jaime Rosso said. "We're not cutting fat. We're cutting into the substance of our programs."

Although no members of the public spoke at the session, they were encouraged to contact Flores, board members, their state representatives and the governor with comments and suggestions.

"We are hoping to channel this energy into advocacy for a better state budget," Board President Rhoda Bress said. "We welcome and need public input and want to hear from as many of you as possible."

The district's approach to the budget crisis:

• $500,000 - million to cut immediately

• $4.5 - million to cut from next school year

Tentative cuts:

• $389,000 - reorganize district office administration

• $480,000 - Eliminate class size reduction for third grade

• $425,000 - Eliminate elementary music and physical education programs

• $960,000 - Reduce middle school day from eight to seven periods

• $234,000 - Increase high school class size from 32:1 to 33:1

• $270,000 - Eliminate in town bus stops

• $1,251,400 - Twenty-eight other tentative cuts

Total :$4,009,400