The recommended operating budget I have submitted to the Board of Education for its consideration Thursday night is unlike any other I have prepared during my 17 years as superintendent.

I am not requesting any increase in the county appropriation to our school district or any increase in the school district tax rate. The budget is based not on what we need to meet our mission but rather on the revenues that we anticipate being available.

The Board of Education recognizes these are challenging economic times. Families, businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, and taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet. It's a time to place limits on spending and to focus our attention on making the very best use of every dollar that we receive.

We know that we will have some increased expenses next year such as for the employer share of health insurance for our locally paid staff. We also anticipate that teachers may receive a step increase on their salary schedule. That decision is made by the General Assembly. In order to meet these and a few other anticipated cost increases, yet operate with the same county appropriation, we must reduce our current expenditures by $875,000.

I am committed to making these reductions in a manner that will minimize the negative impact on students and staff members. More than half will come from our central office administration budget. I am proposing to reduce non-personnel spending by 10 percent ($250,000) and instituting hiring freezes and/or delays that will save an additional $200,000.

At the school level, I am proposing to cut non-personnel budgets by 10 percent, generating a savings of $144,000. I am also proposing to reduce the number of workdays for teacher assistants in grades K-3 by five days. These are days when students are not in attendance. Finally, I am proposing the reduction of one teaching position in our two largest high schools, and the reduction of some part-time clerical support in our middle schools.

This budget recommendation is based upon a number of assumptions that could change as the budget process proceeds. We are counting on the county commissioners to maintain the current appropriation to our school district. We are projecting very modest or, in some cases, no salary increases for our employees. Again, this is determined by the General Assembly.

We also are assuming that we can operate within the same budget for utilities that we had this year. Changes in any of these assumptions could cause us to return to the drawing board.

We have developed contingency plans in the event that any of these assumptions become invalid. These would entail deeper cuts that primarily will result in staff reductions.

We are fortunate that this is a good year for holding the line on our budget. The kindergarten enrollment eligibility age is being changed, thereby reducing the size of our kindergarten cohort. Overall, the state has projected that we will grow by only 21 students next year. We are not opening a new school this year.

We don't anticipate the General Assembly passing significant pay increases for state-paid employees.

The public can track budget developments and access budget materials on our Web site at chccs.k12.nc.us. We will make every effort to make the process as transparent as possible until a local budget is finally adopted this summer.

(Neil Pedersen is the superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.)