Mankato Area School District officials received some feedback Monday on how to proceed with $3 million in projected budget cuts for the 2009-10 school year.

Several dozen community members and district staff braved slick roads and rough weather to attend the first of two public forums on the reduction process. And while there was no shortage of suggestions, viable solutions were more elusive.

Because of stringent accounting laws on government agencies, school districts have very few options on where they can make budget adjustments. Essentially, school districts can only make cuts in theirgeneral fund, which is largely generated through a combination of state aid and property taxes. Mankato’s general fund totals about $60 million with 84 percent coming from the state or federal government.

Because classroom staff account for 80 percent of general fund expenditures, Supt. Ed Waltman said it will be “nearly impossible” to avoid cutting jobs.

One audience member proposed raising high school classes into the 40 or 50 range in the spirit of college lecture-style courses. Mankato East principal Shane Baier said such a move may be possible, but space limitations are a concern because East doesn’t have classrooms that can hold that many students.

“We don’t have any lecture halls,” Baier said. “But when you’re surviving, sometimes you have to do what you have to do.”

One suggestion was eliminating all-day kindergarten. Waltman said the savings would be about $700,000, but Eagle Lake kindergarten teacher Becky Talle said the program’s value far outweighs the cost. With district research suggesting that half of all incoming kindergarten students are unprepared for school, Talle said all-day kindergarten is the beginning of academic success and too important to face reduction.

“I’d rather see my job go kaput” than lose all-day kindergarten, Talle said.

Several suggestions centered around transportation reductions. Waltman said the district could save up to $300,000 by stretching the elementary busing boundary to two miles and there might also be some nominal savings in re-drawing school boundaries to alter transportation routes.

Waltman also said the district could save more than $500,000 by switching to a four-day week, but widespread community challenges could offset the savings. Parents would have to find additional day care, athletic and event scheduling would be seriously hampered, the district would have to re-negotiate all its employee contracts and there would be a serious risk of losing students to open enrollment.

“This would be a big change and it would need some serious community discussion,” Waltman said.

Other reduction suggestions include: library supplies, postage costs, co-curricular activities and gifted programs. Waltman said nearly every school site is at or above capacity, so closing a facility is not an option. And with projections showing an enrollment increase of 750 students in the next five years, Waltman said reductions will not affect the construction of the new school.

“That project will create jobs,” Waltman said. “It’s a good economic investment in the community at a time when we really need it.”