CAIRO, Ill. -- Faced with steep declining student enrollments and the state of Illinois' failure to come through on its financial commitments, the Cairo School Board has approved cutting 23 jobs, including 15 teaching positions.

On Thursday, the board approved the job cuts to fill a projected $600,000 budget deficit, about 7.5 percent of the district's $8 million annual budget.

The reductions, a few through retirements but most through layoffs, will claim two preschool positions, an art teacher, and math, social studies, language arts and physical education teaching jobs. Five teacher aides, two secretaries and one custodian also will lose their jobs.

The positions will be eliminated after the school year, but some of the jobs could return in the fall semester depending on the state aid picture.

Once again, the district is scrambling to fill a funding gap created by a huge decline in enrollment and delayed payments from the state. The Cairo School District has lost an average of 40 students per year over the last five years, according to superintendent Leotis Swopes. The district, he said, had prepared for the subsequent $300,000 loss in enrollment-driven state aid, funding reductions that the shrinking school district of some 425 students has grown accustomed to.

The school system is waiting for $300,000 the state owes it in preschool funding. The check for the 2009-2010 school year just arrived in December, Swopes said.

"Those late payments for preschool cut into our reserves," he said. "We're fortunate to have reserves, but those are quickly depleted when the state makes late payments or no payments at all.

"When the state loses its shoes, we lose our feet."

The school year began with uncertainty about the future of state aid for preschool programming, and the financial future remains murky.

Building consolidation also could be part of the budget cuts. The board next month is expected to vote on a plan to close the former junior high building that now serves as the district's administrative offices. Swopes said the move could save the district $150,000, with the administration functions relocating to the high school, and preschool programs transferring to the elementary school.

Closing the building, however, would cost a valuable tenant -- Shawnee Community College's Cairo Center, where Cairo High School students attend college-level courses for dual credit.

"Having a remote location in Cairo is great for our community," Swopes said, adding the district has been in conversations about finding another place for the college in Cairo.

Districts across Illinois are dealing with budget cuts as the Illinois Legislature struggles to get the state's fiscal house in order. Lawmakers are calling for consolidation of the state's 868 school districts, a proposal picking up traction among some in Cairo.

"We've lost a lot of students, and schools in Illinois need to consolidate," said Brenda Gooden, a Cairo School Board member for two decades.

The political will, however, is another point entirely, Gooden said. Cairo, Egyptian, Century and Meridian school districts, all with declining enrollments in recent years, could join forces to build better school systems, Gooden said.

"If those four schools would come together, we'd have a decent high school. But the people aren't going to vote for it," she said. "They're not going to give up their high schools."

Swopes said the schools are sharing resources now, and consolidation could be a feasible extension of those partnerships.

"The building blocks for such things are there," he said. "Something is going to have to happen."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

2403 Doctor Martin Luther King Ave., Cairo, IL