While they didn't touch a proposed 4-mill property tax hike, Farrell Area School Board members apparently agreed to make enough cuts to eliminate the need for raiding the district's savings.

The district has used its fund balance, a rainy day savings account, for several years to balance its budget. Superintendent Richard R. Rubano Jr. said he wants to build it back up.

The tentative budget approved last week proposed using $152,197 from the fund balance, which might have less than $100,000 in it by the end of this school year.

The board agreed Monday to cuts in spending of about $165,000.

Continuing to spend more money than it takes in would lead the district down the road to state takeover, Rubano said.

"My goal has always been to keep us under local control," he said. "I don't want us to be the Farrell Area/Harrisburg School District."

Rubano later said the state is not hovering over the district waiting to move in.

"I'm not saying you'll be taken over next year or the year after," he said. "It's a process."

Some of the savings are not so much cuts as responses to changes. Rubano noted that it looks like an elementary teacher will retire, a special education student will not enroll next year, and that he negotiated a change in telephone service with Verizon.

Rubano found little support for the option of cutting sports. Board member Jerome Flint said the board should consider at least a one-year moratorium, noting that, when the state takes over a school, the first thing cut is sports.

But, the board did support some specific sports-related cuts.

Rubano suggested eliminating intramural hours for coaches, which would save $20,000. The board appeared to support phasing out the program over one or two years.

Coaches are paid $5 an hour for duties beyond the scope of their normal duties. Extras include such duties as running the weight room in the summer. Head coaches are paid for 100 hours and assistants for 50 hours.

School Director Joseph "Peppy" Costa said he thinks coaches will resign if their hours are cut, but Director James Guerino disagreed, saying the coaches are dedicated to the school.

The board also offered distinct opinions on Rubano's proposal to stop buying shoes for athletes and cheerleaders, a $6,000 savings.

Director Sadie Benham asked what the district would do for students who say they cannot afford the shoes.

"We always take care of them," Director Larry Manilla responded, noting that booster clubs and private donors have always helped.

Ms. Benham said she would not approve the shoe proposal. "There are some parents with more than one child," she said.

Rubano called on the coaches to be more responsible in spending money, and estimated the district should be spending $150,000 to $175,000 to run its athletic programs, not the $255,186 in this year's budget.

"We're operating on a quad A budget in a single A school," he said.

Other cuts the board appeared to agree to: