The failure of a 9.9-mill levy Nov. 3 means two new schools now under construction likely won't open as planned next year and an existing school may close.

Superintendent Steve Dackin said last week the district is looking at ways to cut between $400,000 and $500,000 from the budget for the remainder of this year for things not related to actual instruction.

That could include closing the district's central office for an additional three days on top of the eight days it is already scheduled to close during the holiday season.

Another $4-million will have to be trimmed from next year's budget, he said. Dackin said he will recommend that two schools being built off Summit Road not open unless the district can somehow find some new revenue.

"I don't have the revenue to open up the new buildings," he said.

In addition, he said officials are looking at closing Graham Road Elementary School in 2010, a year earlier than planned. Currently, the school is used as a special needs pre-school and as a K-4 elementary school.

District spokesperson Tricia Moore said current plans are to no longer use the building for any classes once the new elementary school opens off Summit Road. However, if the new schools don't open and Graham Road Elementary also is closed, then obviously a lot of students will be crammed into other existing buildings.

"There are a lot of things on the plate," Dackin said. "There will be cuts on elective course work at the high school and junior high, (including art, music, and physical education) and we'll have to staff high school classes at a certain student-teacher ratio.

"We're going to try and avoid doing that as much as possible, but in the end, I'm forced to reduce and there's no way I can keep it from happening at the classroom -- not $4-million worth," he said. "I'm going to try and cut everything I can cut to keep them away from the classroom as best as I can."

He said the district is looking at everything -- how buildings are cleaned, how students are transported, cutting support and administrative staff -- as it searches for ways to reduce expenditures.

Dackin said quick action is needed on the budget cuts for this year.

"Our treasurer, Tammy Miller, has submitted a five-year forecast that has us projected to have a $732,000 cash balance at the end of this fiscal year that's five days of operating cash," he said.

"We don't have any money to meet our current expenses and as such, we'll have to reduce our expenses for next school year. We'll have to do some reductions immediately because $732,000 in cash is a very volatile cash balance," he said.

Dackin said that figure could change.

'The problem is, there are too many things that could happen that could eat into that $732,000 by no fault of our own," Dackin said.

For example, he said every time a child leaves to go to a community school, the district loses an average of $7,200 per student.

"Every time a child goes to another district that has open enrollment, it's $5,500 per kid, and every time a kid comes to Reynoldsburg who is in need of specialized services, we have to pay for that. We don't have a choice," Dackin said. "Then you throw in the utility costs on top of that --we're hoping for a very mild winter -- all those factor into costs that are out of our control."

Any decision on placing another operating levy before voters in May will have to be made by the Reynoldsburg Board of Education by the first week in February, he said.

In the meantime, Dackin said he expects Miller's latest five-year forecast to trigger a notice from the Ohio Department of Education that Reynoldsburg schools are under fiscal caution.

As for the district being declared in a state of fiscal emergency Dackin said he expects to receive a letter of that nature from the state in the near future.

"Once we submitted our five-year financial forecast, that'll be a trigger, because we're submitting a forecast that shows a deficit cash balance from four of the five years," he said. "Under the rules of the department of education, as I understand it, that will at least trigger a letter from ODE saying, 'we're putting you under fiscal caution, or fiscal watch,' which means they will require us to submit a plan to them saying how we intend to ensure that our forecast reflects a positive cash balance all five years.

"At that point, the state will monitor the district's finances," he said.

Dackin said Reynoldsburg school officials will continue to make the case for why the district needs additional revenue in order to maintain what it has.

"If not, we continue to lose what we have now, and that is the problem," he said. "Because of the tax-reduction factor of property levies, we never catch up to where we would have been had we passed something earlier.

"The deeper you go, the more difficult, if not impossible, it is to restore anything that you had previously, because you just keep digging into a deeper financial hole."

Dackin said he is disappointed the last levy was not successful, but noted that Reynoldsburg residents have a long history of supporting the schools.

"This is just a difficult time for people economically," he said. "We're going to continue to make the case for why we're asking for additional revenue."

He said the district may host some town meetings on finances early next year.

"It's important to engage the community because the quality of Reynoldsburg city schools, I believe, is directly attributed to the quality of the city of Reynoldsburg," Dackin said. "I think there's an opportunity for us as a community to make some decisions about what we want for our young people."