Parents in the Duquesne School District learned last night that none of their students will be bused to the Pittsburgh Public Schools for classes during the 2006-07 school year.

But the grim reality of what will be left of the Duquesne school system if the $12.9 million preliminary budget becomes final is just starting to sink in. The budget holds property taxes at 21.1 mills.

The spending plan, adopted last night by state board of control members Shawn Farr and Stanley Denton, calls for the elimination of seven teaching positions, the school psychologist, librarian and guidance counselor.

The school psychologist, Pat Monroe, also is the football coach who took the varsity football team to the state championship this year.

Among the teacher cuts will be one elementary classroom teacher, and an elementary math and an art teacher. Also on the chopping block are a language arts and a math teacher in grades 7-8, and the Spanish teacher for grades 9-12.

The elimination of the Spanish teacher would mean there would be no foreign language teachers left in the district. If the cut takes place, foreign languages would be offered through distance learning, such as by computer, said Mr. Farr, chairman of the board of control. The good news is that students would be able to select from a variety of languages.

Also cut from the budget is an art teacher for grades 7-12. Mr. Farr had announced in January when he released the first draft of the 2006-2007 budget that all music and art classes would be discontinued in the district next year.

The preliminary budget also calls for cutting a K-12 speech therapist, a social worker and the kindergarten teaching assistants.

The only extracurricular activities to survive in the proposed budget would be high school football and high school boys and girls basketball. Though the January draft of the budget showed $3,500 for some other activities, that money has been eliminated from the preliminary budget.

Mr. Farr said teachers could volunteer their time to be activity sponsors if they choose but there is no money to pay them.

The budget also calls for teaching special education students on site rather than sending them to other public and private schools. Mr. Farr said he hoped to contract with either the Holy Family Institute or the Auberle Home, where Duquesne students are currently sent, to operate the in-house program.

Mr. Farr also plans to set up two "life skills" classrooms to educate special education students who currently attend the Mon Valley School. When one parent objected to her 18-year-old daughter being removed from the Mon Valley School, Mr. Farr said no students will be forced to leave programs they are already attending.

Also cut from the budget was $10,000 that had been used this year for newsletters to communicate school news to parents and the community.

Both Mr. Farr and Mr. Denton stressed that the budget is preliminary and that it could change before final passage, which is set for June 27. But Mr. Farr warned that there is no new revenue coming to the district in the next month that would make it possible to avert cutting what needs to be cut to balance the budget.

"This is not a situation where we are making these cuts because we want to," Mr. Farr told the several dozen parents at the meeting. "This is what we have to do."

Though the spending plan put together by Mr. Farr will be balanced for the 2006-07 school year, it still carries a $3.3 million deficit built up in past years.

Mr. Farr encouraged parents to offer their opinions on the budget either at a June 6 parents session to be held at 1 p.m. at the National City Bank in Duquesne or at the June 27 board of control meeting at which the final budget will be adopted.

He said that although no students will be bused outside of the district for next year as had been discussed earlier this year, that option is still being investigated for future years.