NEGAUNEE -- After starting in January with a $1.5 million deficit, Monday night the Negaunee School Board approved a balanced budget for next school year.  But it didn't come without making hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts first.

At the end of a work session two weeks ago, the district was still at a deficit of $300,000.  Administrators have now eliminated that deficit, with plans of spending $11.5 million next year.

Monday night, the board laid out what changes will have to be made next year in order for the budget to work.  When the 1428 enrolled students at the Negaunee School District return to school in the fall, they'll notice those changes right away.

"This is one of the toughest years I've had as a superintendent, trying to come up with a budget, in 16 years," says Superintendent Jim Derocher.

As far as reductions go, athletic transportation took a hit.  Contract negotiations for staff members are ongoing.  And positions like the school nurse and special-ed coordinator aren't even in the budget yet. 

Cuts came in the form of closing the pool and the library.  The librarian isn't the only one heading back into the classroom, so is the high school guidance counselor.  And an eliminated section at Lakeview Elementary round out just some of the cuts needed to overcome the original $1.5 million deficit.

"We're required by law to have a balanced budget in place by July 1st, whether we know what's going to be or not," Derocher says.

Nine members of the teaching staff and seven members of the support staff retired at the end of this past school year, allowing for six laid-off teachers to return to work next year.

Those are just some of the changes Derocher says could change the budget picture again and again.

"It's very tentative because we're still waiting on the state aid package from Lansing; we're still working without contract negotiations for our teachers, our custodians, our transportation people, in that we have concessions that we are hoping to get from the various unions in order to help us balance the budget," Derocher adds.

One thing that the superintendent did emphasize was that this budget can, and will, change.  One of those is the closure of the pool; he says someone has already come forward and offered to donate some money for the next two years to attempt to keep the pool open.

Derocher says all of the proposed cuts are an estimate, taking the worst case scenario into account.