COOS BAY —  A week after announcing a projected $1 million shortfall for next school year, Coos Bay School District officials have developed a tentative plan to balance the budget without laying off any teachers.

A good amount of money, about $650,000, will be saved by not filling the positions of several employees who are retiring this summer. Another $375,000 will be set aside by reducing the amount spent on services, supplies and textbooks.

The cuts do not completely preclude the possibility of staffing cuts, said Superintendent Bob De La Vergne. In a meeting with administrators this week, he proposed $400,000 worth of cuts from the district office, including two classified staff positions.

In total, the school district’s building managers proposed cuts totaling $1.37 million, $370,000 more than necessary to balance the budget.

Business Manager Rod Danielson said this would give the district’s Budget Committee some flexibility when it meets next month. If all the cuts are agreed upon, the excess savings would be put into a contingency fund. It also will help soften the blow of future shortfalls that are likely to occur if student enrollment continues to drop.

De La Vergne emphasized that the cuts are only preliminary, and since the cuts exceed the amount of savings needed, they may not all go into effect.

“Every building came forward with these ideas,” he said. “We didn’t ask for it.”

What De La Vergne requested was for each building to consider how it could cut its expenses by 5 percent. When administrators met, most of the schools had cuts below that mark, though everyone made some concessions.

Along with the district office, Marshfield High School led the way by cutting $400,000 from its projected budget, about 6 percent of its budget. In addition to supplies and services, the high school will save $365,000 by not filling positions that will be vacated by retirements and a teacher taking a leave of absence.

Those departures include Dean of Students Gael Berhow, who announced her retirement before the budget deliberations. Rather than hiring a new administrator, the school will operate with the three currently in the building: Principal Travis Howard, Assistant Principal Bruce Bryant and Athletic Director Greg Mulkey.

Howard said he plans to sit down with Bryant and Mulkey in the coming weeks to discuss how Berhow’s responsibilities will be distributed.

“We will look at the needs and come up with a plan that most effectively meets their needs,” he said.

Administrative savings also will come at the district office, where Curriculum Director Duella Scott-Hull has agreed to retire and work part time next year.

At the elementary schools, Blossom Gulch will leave two teaching positions unfilled that were added last year but were found to be unnecessary. Blossom Gulch and Madison Elementary School also will likely not be unable to bring on board a physical education teacher. The prospect of such a hire was raised after Blossom Gulch and Madison received a grant from the Oregon Department of Education to pay for a PE teacher’s salary. The state’s award was contingent on the district agreeing to pay the benefits for the new teacher, estimated at about $28,000. Given the current climate, De La Vergne said it would be unlikely for the district to agree to pay that amount.

The least impacted building is Sunset Middle School, which is only being asked to limit its spending on supplies by $13,000, constituting about 0.5 percent of its proposed budget. The Middle School had already borne much of the burden of cutbacks last year when its art program was dropped.

There will be an impact for middle school students participating in sports, however, as the number of girls basketball, boys basketball and volleyball teams will be reduced.

Currently, all three sports have two varsity teams and one JV team per grade. Mulkey said that number will be reduced to two teams next year. He added he is unsure if the two teams will consist of two varsity teams or one varsity and one JV.

At the high school, the boys JV2 basketball team, sophomore football team and a JV squad from both the boys and girls golf squads are targeted for cuts, Mulkey said.

Like the other proposed cuts, none of these changes will occur unless they are approved by the budget committee in May.

Before these proposals were finalized, De La Vergne explained the situation to staff at a meeting Wednesday morning at Marshfield’s auditorium.

De La Vergne said the district would continue to finance the construction of a new wood shop behind the high school that students are building as part of a class project. Addressing concerns about low graduation rates, De La Vergne said he plans to hire a truancy officer who can get more students back in school, which would lead to more funding from the state.

After De La Vergne finished answering questions, employees applauded.