Public school students may notice something missing when they return from summer vacation today.

They'll see fewer afterschool tutors, fewer administrators and fewer classroom supplies as principals attempt to deal with recent and looming cuts to their budgets.

While questions remain over potential pay cuts or furloughs for teachers and other school employees, principals report they have already made tough budget decisions. And those decisions are likely to increase the workload for teachers and mean fewer opportunities for students who fall behind.

At Niu Valley Middle School, principal Justin Mew said budget cuts forced him to cut six of his part-time tutors, who help students struggling in math and reading.

Additionally, Mew also cut part-time clerical workers, a vice principal and reduced his librarian from full time to part time.

"What's intact is our basic instruction. We were able to ensure that all of the teachers are in place. It's the support staff and support programs that have been affected negatively," he said.

The immediate effects will be felt by teachers, who will have to spend extra time before or after school with students. But long-term effects could be felt when students take the annual Hawaii State Assessment.

"The issue is that students do learn at different rates and that's why the afterschool tutoring was put in," Mew said.

Schools across the state have similar stories to tell as the public school system struggles to subtract some $227 million from its roughly $1.8 billion annual budget. The bulk of the reduction — about $117.4 million — will come from yet-to-be negotiated furloughs or pay cuts for public school employees.

Principals were also asked to deal with at least $35 less per student under the DOE's budget reduction plan. The plan included about $8 million in cuts to the so-called Weighted Student Formula, the department's method of allocating money to schools based on the number of their students. About $16 million, through a 5 percent cut in school supplies and equipment, also was included in the reduction plan.

BACK TO CLASSES

Only a portion of the state's estimated 178,000 public school students will return to class today. The bulk of schools will open their doors to kids tomorrow or Monday. Many schools have opted to use planning and collaboration days at the beginning of the year to allow teachers time to prepare.

Lea Albert, Windward complex area superintendent, said there is still uncertainty about how much money principals may actually have to cut from their budgets.

Schools could potentially have to absorb more cuts if the DOE is unable to negotiate salary reductions and furloughs to cover the full $117.4 million in labor cuts. Additionally, if the state's economic situation gets worse, the public school system could be asked to restrict its budget even more.

"Principals are by nature conservative with money. ... They were trained to hold money on the side in the case that they don't meet their (projected) enrollment and will have to give money back,"Albert said.

"On top of that, they have kept money aside in the event that money is taken away because of the budget deficit."

While the situation varies from school to school, in general public school principals have cut clerks, tutors, custodians and other part-time support personnel from their staff. They're also holding back money for classroom supplies and equipment.

"We have our basic textbooks and workbooks," said Evelyn Hao, principal at Kuhio Elementary School. "It's the other stuff. ... I asked the teachers, when they're running off copies to think twice."

Teachers are even being asked to conserve basics such as paper towels, soap and electricity.

Hao has cut the number of part-time teachers at the school from seven to two. Those teachers were traditionally used to create smaller learning groups for students who needed help and to lessen the load on the regular classroom teachers.

"It will have an effect. The students won't have the focused, targeted intervention as we did before," she said.

ADDITIONAL DUTIES

To make up for the cut in part-time teachers, Hao said the school's counselor and librarian will be asked to go into the classroom to help.

Budget cuts also prevented Hao from hiring two additional classroom teachers to help with increasing enrollment.

Hao said budget cuts will never be used as an excuse for not providing students the best possible education.

"I try to remind my teachers that as long as we have talented, committed, hard-working teachers, we could all teach under a tree with sticks and stones and kids will learn. But we're very far from that,"she said.

Some schools are attempting to offset cuts through community donations and use of grant money.

Susan Hirokane, principal at Pearl City Elementary, said she was able to hire back all of her teaching positions, including her part-time teachers, because of federal grants that support reading and math.

"I'm going to continue to have people in those part-time positions because of the grant funding. Schools that don't have that kind of funding, there will be a noticeable difference," she said.

Through business and community partnerships, Hirokane said the school was able to prevent cuts to classroom supplies.

That's not to say budget cuts are not being felt at Pearl City Elementary. Hirokane said the school is not hiring back seven part-time tutors.

"We're going to strive to keep the quality the same," she said. "It's just teachers are going to have to do more without the extra bodies."