LANGLEY — Library services face the largest cuts in the school district budget for the coming year, though some say cuts to sports and other extracurricular activities may be long overdue.

With budget workshops wrapping up this week, some South Whidbey officials are casting an eye toward what’s to come if the district’s dismal revenue outlook continues.

“I think when we start the budget round for next year, we need to have a community conversation about priorities,” said Board Member Leigh Anderson.

At some point, the school district needs to evaluate how much more can be cut from its budget before education suffers, and that was the warning Wednesday from some board members.

Superintendent Jo Moccia understood the dire nature of the school district’s downturn, but deferred to others on the most immediate cuts, which were largely hashed out before she joined the district not much more than a week ago.

“I’m feeling this huge sense of urgency,” Moccia said. “It’s going to take me a year to be recommending a plan that I feel responsible for, as opposed to coming in at this point.”

“We’re pretty lean,” she added.

It was Moccia’s eighth day on the job, and Wednesday was her first board meeting. It was also the final 2011-12 budget workshop for the board, which is expected to adopt next school year’s spending plan on July 27.

The numbers have fallen for nearly everything, from enrollment (down 100 students) to revenue (down $429,611) to expenditures (down $417,502). The district already reduced its ranks by six educators and 13 classified staff, where payroll costs are the largest percentage of the budget.

“We’re in a downsizing culture and we have been for about eight years,” Anderson said. “This is the reality. Not, ‘It might get better next year.’”

Dan Poolman, the district’s business director, presented the outline of the budget to the board. Reductions to services were made across the district, from certificated staff such as teachers and principals to librarians, administrative staff and custodians. No department was cut more than librarian services, which decreased by 42.2 percent; the next highest reduction was para educators at 15.3 percent.

The only increase in the services budget was to legal costs for the board, which increased 19.1 percent to $124,550. When asked, Poolman would not specifically say why the costs are expected to rise.

Contract negotiations are ongoing between the district and three unions representing teachers, classified staff and service employees.

Anderson also had qualms about cutting librarian services drastically, when extracurricular activities were cut 7.1 percent.

She asked Poolman who decides what gets cut and by how much.

Poolman said extracurricular budgets are determined by the facility’s principal or director. The disparity between extracurriculars and other services’ cuts concerned Anderson.

“At some point, the community — there needs to be a choice and the rubber needs to hit the road somewhere and education is more important than sports, if that’s what the community wants to say,” Anderson said. “If the community wants to say, ‘No, sports are more important than academics,’ then it can move forward. It seems disproportionate.”

Certificated staff were cut .3 percent and materials, supplies and operating costs were reduced 12.7 percent. Cuts to classified staff concerned Moccia and the board, as Board Chairman Rich Parker questioned what the unintended consequences may be.

“The unintended consequences of cutting classified staff are pretty evident when you look around the buildings,” Moccia said. “So I have a concern about that, about librarians, about a lot of things.”

With several years of declining funds, Moccia urged the district to reevaluate how it operates and reconsider how it prioritizes.

“We may need to change the conversation,” Moccia added. “Right now we continue to operate in this deficit mindset.”

Support, business and human resources costs were cut 4.8 percent. Brown again took exception to the budget’s presentation of how administrative costs were cut.

“So by our math, administrative costs increased, and by your math, it decreased,” Brown said.

With an expected budget higher than the expected revenue, however, the district may need more cuts.

“We’re going to have to be unfair sometimes,” said Board Member Fred O’Neal.