In March, board members approved a combination of budget cuts and new revenue sources to free up about $2.2 million for the next academic year. Officials said it all means Woodland should lose roughly $3 million next year instead of $5 million.

District 50 officials said they were focusing on cuts and fees because they didn’t want to tap taxpayers for more cash. However, with the education fund on pace to run out of money in 2008, the possibility of asking voters to approve a tax increase was raised in May.

Woodland’s financial gap has been expanding due to higher-than-anticipated expenses, new student programs and poor school funding by state government, officials said.

An extended finance committee of Woodland School District 50 residents, board members and administrators met for the first time Tuesday to begin the stressful process of determining how the education fund budget can be reduced by $3 million next school year to prevent the district from going into deficit spending.

As a result of the new union contract, the school board has determined that budget expenditures must be reduced to accommodate a 16.5 percent increase in teacher salaries over the next two years. The union’s contract was ratified in October following an 11-day strike that began in September.

When Woodland School District 50 passed a tax rate increase for its education fund in 1999, the board predicted the additional revenue would sustain the district through the 2008-2009 school year. Officials say that projection was based on expected student enrollment, future staffing needs and anticipated salary increases. But the new union contract is proving their predictions wrong.

At a well-attended community forum Oct. 29, the board reported it must reduce budgetary expenditures to accommodate for a 16.5 percent increase in teacher salaries over the next two years or go into deficit spending.

Without a reduction in expenditures or an increase in revenue, board members said the education fund, which pays teacher salaries and benefits, will reflect a negative balance during the 2006-2007 school year.

Under the new two-year contract agreement, teachers will get a salary increase of 9 percent this year and 7.5 percent next year. Tenured teachers with master’s degrees stand to earn $50,853 next year. The salaries of first-year teachers will increase from $27,000 to $29,500. Next year, they will receive $31,252. There will also be an increase in the hourly wages of support staff, including bus drivers and custodians, of $1.22 this year and $1.25 next year.