By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

FAIRFIELD - When classes in the Fairfield Schools resume after summer break, there will be 18 fewer teaching positions, four fewer administrators and about 10 fewer staff members.

Another 10 teachers in the Work and Family Life program, business department and alternative school will be transferred to employment with the Butler Technology and Career Development Schools. The classes will continue to be held in Fairfield's buildings.

Furthermore, as many as 20 bus drivers could lose their jobs if a 6.9-mill levy on the Aug. 3 ballot is rejected. That's because busing for students in grades 9-12 who attend public, private or parochial schools would end with a tax levy defeat.

"Cutting staff was one of our last resorts because it directly impacts our students. The board has been trying not to do that,'' said Anne Crone, school board president.

"When you get into staffing cuts, the class size goes up and the workload for our teachers increases.

"I truly believe this is going to impact the way our students learn and achieve."

The positions are being cut for the 2004-05 school year because the district is facing a $9 million shortfall in its general fund by June 2006.

This year's general fund totals about $68.5 million, according to Treasurer J. Scott Gooding.

Those staffing cuts total nearly $2 million and follow $3 million approved after the March defeat of an operating levy that would have brought $9.1 million annually to district coffers.

That same levy will be resubmitted to voters Aug. 3. If approved, taxes would increase about $211 annually on a $100,000 house.

Regardless of the levy's outcome, the school board has already voted to reduce spending by $12.5 million over the next five years.

It froze the creation of jobs during that same period.

Another $344,000 is being saved by not purchasing as many new textbooks and other reductions made for this school year.

"The programs we offer kids are diminishing,'' Superintendent Robert Farrell said. "The total reduction in staff could be 62 positions. That's a lot.''

Staffing cuts come at a time when the district is expecting to increase its enrollment by 100 or more each of the next few years, Farrell said.

There are about 9,500 students now enrolled in the district.

"I know this board did not want to do this,'' Farrell said. "But you can't cut $9 million in one year."

Farrell said the teachers union, whose contract expires this year, has agreed to extend its contract one year. Teachers will not receive a cost-of-living increase.

Contracts with other employees expire in 2005. Farrell said the district can't afford any pay increases.