Slightly larger class sizes, a shift to a new math curriculum and reduced custodial services at middle and high schools are three of the changes students in the Edmonds School District will see this fall because of the 2007-08 budget.

The Edmonds School Board passed the budget at its Tuesday, Aug. 14 meeting.

About $4.5 million in cuts were made from the budget, which estimates about $181 million in expenditures this year.

The district cut about $1.3 million by closing teaching positions. In spring, the district proposed cutting $2 million in that area, which would have raised the student-teacher ratio by one student in schools district-wide. Staff and parents, concerned about class size, asked the district to restore teaching positions.

As a result, the district plans to restore $700,000 of those positions. $300,000 in teaching positions has already been added back at a handful of schools. Those schools were chosen based on how much they were impacted by losing positions, said Marla Miller, assistant superintendent.

At this point, 22 full-time equivalent teaching positions have been cut.

The remaining $400,000 intended to replace teaching positions depends on September enrollment numbers. If numbers come in as expected, the $400,000 will be restored.

Two provisional teachers whose contracts were not renewed in spring because of the budget cuts proposal have been rehired.

No other certificated teachers lost jobs, but one teacher’s hours were cut by 0.2 of a full-time-equivalent schedule. The other positions closures were achieved through attrition.

Several classified positions were closed as well, including a warehouse position, a temporary painting position and several custodial positions. Two people lost their jobs in the cuts and the rest were taken care of through attrition and combining hours.

Paraeducator hours for crossing guards, career and technical education support, and the volunteer program were reduced, but no jobs were eliminated.

As for other changes, the district will spend $1.3 million on a math initiative to buy curriculum and train teachers in math. It scaled back spending on the initiative by $700,000 after community input.

Most of the other cuts do not impact the classroom.

They include reducing transportation services by about $115,000. It hasn’t yet been decided what cuts will be made in transportation, Miller said. Eliminating middle school activity buses is being looked at, as are other changes.

In addition, volunteer programs will have $30,000 to $40,000 less to work with this year. That means different things at different schools, but overall, there will be less hours funded for staff who run volunteer programs at the schools, Miller said.

As for other cuts, custodial services was cut by $200,000 and will be reduced at the middle schools and high schools, the district newsletter will be revised, facility rental rates will go up and the human resources department will have less money for recruitment.

Other cuts include reducing overtime in the business and operations department, reducing the budget for printing forms, reducing the operational cost of the warehouse and more.