Attempting to whittle a projected 18-percent tax levy increase down to 4 percent, Southern Cayuga school officials face the unsettling task of addressing mounting debts with staff and program cuts.

Superintendent Thomas Turck said in a press release that leaps in costs for health insurance, teacher retirement and heating costs, coupled with a $300,000 debt, represents more than $719,000 in extra spending that is "largely out of the district's control."

The debt relates to the BOCES capital project, a loan the district took out for replacing the roof on the high school and maintaining the school district's bus fleet.

School administrators have proposed slashing three full-time teaching positions, one administrative position, a planetarium director position, a guidance counselor, a hall monitor and a typist. Additionally, the school's late afternoon bus run for extracurricular and interscholastic activities may be discontinued, and the spending on those activities may be cut 40 percent.

Both Turck and school board president Ted Rejman voiced their hope that the public will attend the next school board meeting on April 10 in force.

"The best way for them to help us is to become informed," Turck said.

"It's important to hear from the community - this has not been adopted and we're not done with it yet," Rejman echoed.

During Monday's school board meeting, Turck reviewed the process undertaken so far to reduce the initial spending plan that would have increased expenditures by more than $1.3 million and the local tax levy by 18 percent.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.