Gateway school board members Monday night continued discussing what to cut and what to keep in the district's 2012-13 budget.

Board member Skip Drumheller said there was "lively discussion" during an hour's worth of public comments. He said that the vast majority of residents who spoke had concerns about planned cuts to athletic programs.

During a June 5 meeting, the board announced plans to furlough 27 teachers, eliminate middle school athletic programs, end the district's participation in Boyce Campus Middle College, and do away with K-8 field trips, activity buses, new band uniforms, the Latin program, the high school math lab and writing center, and three buses that would delay start and end times at elementary schools, among other cuts.

Mr. Drumheller said the board agreed on Monday to commit to one more year of participation in the Boyce Campus Middle College program and keep the Latin program.

He also said the district will furlough three fewer elementary teachers to prevent class sizes of more than 30 students.

But the cuts to the athletic programs remain in the proposed spending plan, and a 0.83-mill tax increase is still in the plans.

"We're holding on those as a board," Mr. Drumheller said. "We feel they're absolutely necessary."

He said the board is operating "in a vacuum" because the district doesn't yet know how much money it will receive from the state or if some funding will be restored.

"We can't count on that at this point in time," he said, emphasizing that numbers and decisions are "in flux" until the board takes a final vote on Wednesday during the board's regular meeting, to be held in the high school auditorium. The board must adopt a final budget by June 30.

The $67 million preliminary budget is available at www.gatewayk12.org.

First Published: June 21, 2012, 9:00 a.m.