When it became clear that 384 students unenrolled from the public schools here and weren’t coming back, the already underfunded district was left with a prospective $1.7 million budget shortfall.
Superintendent Otha Belcher said in a January community meeting that to cover the shortfall, he first considered not filling vacancies in the central office. Then he did the same for the maintenance department, the transportation department and teacher vacancies at the individual schools.
“We asked everybody to give up something,” Belcher said.
