Officials in the Sumner School District are warning this week that more than eight full time teaching positions may need to be cut in an attempt to close a $3.4 million budget gap.

However, though eight teachers may receive notices, the district expects to hire back all but one or two teachers.

Debbie Campbell, executive director of business services, said the district  will shift more than $2 million from capital accounts to help close the gap, but cuts will still be necessary.

“We’ve been trying to deal with about a million dollars,” Campbell said of the expenditures-over-revenue difference.

The district this past week hosted two poorly-attended budget meetings detailing their plans for the next school year in advance of Wednesday’s school board meeting, where the board passed a budget resolution detailing some of the projected cuts.

Among the projected cuts to teaching staff are 4.85 full-time equivalency positions at the high school level and 3.5 at the elementary level.

Again, district officials were clear that the positions may not equate to actual teachers losing their jobs due to retirements and adjustments within the district.

District officials pointed to a similar situation in 2010 when 16 teachers received lay-off notices, but 13 were re-hired.

On the non-teacing side of the employment coin, several staff members could be facing reductions or layoffs. The resolution calls for the elimination of one maintenance position and reductions of other positions from year-round to school-year only.

District and school administration will also be expected to take three furlough days, saving about $20,000.

“We’ve trimmed around the edges to the point we don’t have much left,” Campbell said.

Campbell also said it’s “just numbers” at this point because the district is presently in negotiations with five bargaining units, including teachers.

Campbell said the district has had two years of “million-dollar ideas” that allowed the district to more easily weather the financial storms that have affected their funding, including moving teachers designated for professional development back to the classroom or changing back to a traditional six-period day at the high school instead of four periods.

But the district has run out of edges to trim.

“Unfortunately, this year we don’t have a million-dollar fix,” Campbell said.

The district plans to not only reduce their expenditures this year, but also increase revenue by collecting a larger percentage of property taxes. Though voters set an amount to be collected, the number is usually higher than the district can collect. Last year the legislature allowed districts to collect a higher percentage on a homes assessed property value and Campbell said Sumner would be increasing their percentage collected, but also said due to falling home values, the actual taxes paid will probably be less to each homeowner.

District officials also said the budget numbers are still in flux because the Washington State Legislature has not yet passed a budget, meaning districts do not yet know exactly how much they’ll receive from the state.

“There are more unknowns than answers,” Superintendent Gil Mendoza said.