AUBURN - The Auburn Enlarged City School District will keep its elementary summer school in place this summer.

The board of education spent over an hour Tuesday discussing the fate of the summer school while trying to cut costs to adhere to a state-mandated 2008-09 contingency budget, which caps spending.

The contingency budget of $65,896,428, which is 3.97 percent higher than last year and carries a tax levy increase of 0.93 percent, was unanimously adopted by the board Tuesday.

Under a contingency budget, the district must forego any equipment purchases in excess of state aid and cannot give pay increases to employees who are not part of a collective bargaining unit. The board can use its discretion to cut other items to conform to state regulations.

Elementary summer school was one item that faced elimination to cut costs in light of voters twice defeating the proposed budget of $66,490,371. The program is for pre-kindergarten through second grade that provides students who need extra help a boost as well as gives them a head-start into the next grade level, Superintendent J.D. Pabis said.

While elementary summer school has been a part of the district for years, district officials designed a new program that would address and meet state standards, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Carolyn Hirst-Loucks said. Also, while the previous program was funded through a grant, funding for the new program was anticipated through Contract for Excellence, the state's education reform which provides extra funding to districts in need of improvement.

Auburn is no longer a C4E (contract for excellence) designated school.

This year, 186 students registered for the summer school, which runs three hours a day, four days a week for six weeks. The school begins July 14.

Board member Fred Cornelius articulated his concern about cutting the school entirely. He said academics shouldn't be impacted by the board not being able to get the budget passed.

"I don't want to see the academics hurt for that, and I think the elementary summer school is an academic program," he said. "We've had this discussion and we've talked about it, but these are the kids that are going to drop out later. Let's address this issue, let's find the money somewhere and frankly, I'll take the unpopular position of: I don't care what sports program or band program it comes from. Frankly, if we can save the academic programs, then let's do that."

Board member Michael Stearns said that many students turn to sports and band, and for some of them, those are the things that keep them in school. Stearns said a compromise must be made to keep both of these important aspects of education operational this year.

And that's exactly what the board did.

Pabis suggested that instead of cutting the summer school entirely, funding could be found to have a reduced program by not filling a teacher position from a retirement.

At a minimum, 120 of the 186 students signed up could receive summer school to augment education in the classroom.

And for band, athletics and co-curriculars, these programs will see a funding reduction, but not elimination, as board member Ginny Kent warned, it's hard to put back into operation a program that was completely eliminated.

For the full report, read Wednesday's edition of The Citizen.