The Fairfield County School Board will hold its second budget work session tonight, followed by a special called meeting during which the board will hold its first public reading of the 2010-2011 budget.

According to the district’s public notice for the upcoming June 1 public hearing on the budget, the district is working with $32,037,703 – a decrease of nearly 4 percent from last year’s $32,312,815.

“I think we’re going to have to tighten our belts at the district office,” said board member Henry Miller. “I didn’t hear anybody say anything (at the board’s first budget work session last week) about cutting district office staff, where we have people making $70-$80,000 a year.”

So far, Miller said, the talk has only been about cuts to district employees who make significantly less.

School Board Chairwoman Annie McDaniel said significant cuts had been made in the past to the district office, and that, perhaps, other avenues will have to be explored.

“I’m not sure how much more we can cut from the district office,” McDaniel said. “Last year, we pulled six or seven positions.”

Other avenues, she said, might include overtime in the district office, as well as possible combining positions left vacant by retiring employees.

Miller said the district is dealing with a shortfall of between $1 and $2 million in state funds, as well as the prospect of having to send money to the Chester School District to compensate them for educating children from the Mitford area.

The finance committee didn’t get very far with crunching the numbers at their previous budget session, Miller said, and noted that tonight’s first reading was an effort to meet the June 14 deadline to bring their budget before county council. The district must have completed three public readings before then, he said.

According to the district’s public hearing notice, last year’s millage rate was 203.1. That number is not expected to change, in spite of this year’s tighter numbers.

“I’m not for cutting teachers,” Miller said. “Before they start hacking on the small folks, we should look at some of the big fish.”

McDaniel agreed, at least on the point of cutting teachers.

“One of my concerns is cuts to instruction,” she said. “As you know, the last thing we want to do is cut instruction.”

McDaniel said the district has some stimulus funds remaining that could help to offset some of the shortfall.

Board members Danielle Miller and Polly Parker said that neither of them have seen a proposed 2010-2011 budget, and were concerned about the prospects of holding a public reading tonight.

“We want to look at it before Tuesday,” Danielle Miller said Friday.

McDaniel said the first reading would be “title only,” and that discussion of the budget would have no bearing on the first reading. She added that all board members received a packet of information prior to last week’s initial budget talks.