COOS BAY — The Coos Bay School Board got its first look at a variety of cost-cutting measures to help balance its books in light of the souring economy. None was very popular.

The ideas included eliminating school days, eliminating the athletic budget, converting to a four-day school week and/or instituting a hiring freeze.

Superintendent Bob De La Vergne explained Monday that the district has to consider ways to save money both immediately and into next year. Due to state cutbacks, the district has a $400,000 a shortfall to make up before summer. Then the district will need to find a way to cut at least $1 million from the budget next year.

Board member Wally Hazen said the district may not get as much help from the state Legislature this biennium, as revenues are dropping and Oregonians have greater concerns about the economy and health care.

“We are going to find ourselves really struggling for dollars this year,” he predicted.

Eliminating school days would save the district about $100,000 per day, De La Vergne said, while preliminary research suggests a four-day school week could produce a yearly savings of $600,000. A significant portion of the savings in the four-day week would come from reducing classified employees from 40 hours to 32 a week.

Linda Smith, president of the local classified employees association, criticized the idea in comments before the board. She said the district should share the burden of balancing the budget with all employees, rather than targeting one group.

De La Vergne noted that an across-the-board pay freeze would produce a savings of about $250,000, based on district estimates. The district also could save about $750,000 if it no longer provided any funding to the athletic budget.

The board didn’t make any decisions Monday, simply commenting that the situation doesn’t provide any pleasant alternatives. The same sentiment was shared by De La Vergne.

“I don’t like being here any more than you do,” he said. “We are going to have to make some hard decisions real soon.”

Board member David Ford said the district needs to let the public know what cost savings will come from various plans.

Although it wasn’t a decision, De La Vergne noted that one way to solve the current year’s budget problem would be to cut one day from four of the remaining five months of school. The district already has cut discretionary spending, overtime, and professional development and conference attendance not financed by grants.

The district hasn’t abandoned its plans to consider a reconfiguration of schools. A proposal to move the first three years of elementary students into Madison and Blossom Gulch, the next four into Millicoma or Sunset and middle schoolers into the Harding Building, was put forward in November. Since then some more rooms have been found that could serve as class space.

“If needed, that space may alleviate the problem for a time,” he said.

The district still plans to hold meetings about the idea, but dates haven’t been set.