Some South Whidbey school teachers could be getting pink slips at the end of the school year if more than $800,000 in budget cuts sting the school district this year.

At a board of education meeting Monday night, district Superintendent Martin Laster said the $330,000 the district stands to lose in state and levy funding in 2003 will snowball to $850,000 by the time falling enrollment and reduced funding in transportation, special education and school meal programs takes hold. The cuts will come out of a budget that reached about $15 million for the 2001-2002 school year.

Reciting a litany of financial hits, the superintendent received little commentary from a room at South Whidbey Intermediate School packed with teachers, students and parents of students. Only board of education president Ray Gabelein Jr. had any words with which to respond.

“It’s convenient the Legislature gets to make those decisions and go home,” he said. “We’re going to be dealing with this for a long time.”

The funding cuts started with an estimated $265,000 loss the district could take from the state Legislature if education cuts it approved two weeks ago get the governor’s signature. The cuts also affect the school levy passed in February by South Whidbey voters. Because levy dollars are tied to the amount of state dollars coming into the district, schools will receive less money from local property owners, Laster said.

Further reductions in the state’s education block grant program, school safety funds, and a state-mandated staffing cut will probably force the district to reduce its work force. Coupled with a decline of about 100 students over the past two years, and an expected loss of 60 more before next school year, the budget reductions, Laster said, will make it impossible to make program cuts that spare teachers. He said staff can expect to see the first “reduction in force” notices by May 15.

Laster said he would prefer to make cuts anywhere else.

“It is not something any of us look forward to,” he said.

The loss of students between this school year and next promises to be the second-largest hit the district takes. Laster said the enrollment decline would pull about $320,000 out of the district’s pocketbook.

The numbers Laster gave out at the meeting are preliminary. He and district staff will not know exactly how large the budget losses will be until the start of the next school year.