By JESSICA SIEFF
Niles Daily Star

The Brandywine Board of Education met Monday night amidst a change of scenery at Brandywine Elementary School.

Though with the benefit of a relatively light agenda, Superintendent John Jarpe said prior to the  meeting that the board still faces some tough decisions when it comes to handling decreases in state funding.

Jarpe said that he has been working on getting information together to present to the board when it comes to cuts.

“Some of that hinges upon contract negotiations with the teachers,” Jarpe said.

Negotiations are underway now and the results of those talks will no doubt impact the district’s budget. Though he said it was a little early to have any concrete decisions made, Jarpe did say significant cuts would have to be made in the coming year.

“We take a look at what all our costs are going to be,” he said. “There’s no question there’s going to have to be some layoffs.

Brandywine has “in the neighborhood of $1 million” to cut from their budget, Jarpe said.

As the month comes to an end the future becomes more imperative.

“In March we have to have some decisions made,” Jarpe said. “March is a critical month.”

Other are area districts have been careful to touch on the possibility of seeing layoffs due to the cuts – but Jarpe said the probability of such a thing is more than likely.

“The majority of your budget is in personnel,” he said. The hope, he added, is that teachers who may be laid off will eventually be recalled. But the future is uncertain.

Though no outright decisions in how the district will handle the coming year have been made just yet, Jarpe said the district is not dragging its feet.

“We can’t afford to wait that long,” he said.

Jarpe added that there are some ideas in mind when it comes to next year, though he declined to go into detail, saying, “we can only afford to do so much.”