Roanoke County school officials warned Friday they will have to make deeper cuts than anticipated to deal with Virginia's gaping budget shortfall. The county's take-home laptop program could be put on hold, construction projects could be scaled back and school bus purchases could be postponed, school board members said.

The warning comes after Gov. Tim Kaine's announcement this week that he would recommend slashing nearly $400 million from education funding to balance the state's books in the next fiscal year. In Roanoke County, that could mean a loss of between $6.6 million and $7 million in state funding depending on student enrollment and sales tax revenue, according to statistics released Friday. And that's not including possible cuts in local education funding.

School board Chairman Jerry Canada suggested ending the school system's laptop initiative, which issues computers to high school students to take home during the school year. Canada suggested keeping laptops on carts in classrooms instead for students to use during the day, which would save about $1.2 million.

He also suggested renovating only two elementary schools rather than the four identified by officials as being badly in need of repairs.

School officials also suggested not buying new school buses for a year and possibly cutting out the $300,000 the district pays to send 55 students to the Roanoke Valley Governor's School.

"My goal as the chairman and as one school board member is to make this work and save as many positions as we can," Canada said. Other board members also said they wanted to avoid laying off employees as much as possible.

Friday's dire budget predictions could end up understating the magnitude of the shortfall, however.

The governor's plan anticipates a $2.9 billion funding gap but Roanoke County school officials said they expect the actual deficit will end up being closer to $3.7 billion, the figure floated by some members of the General Assembly.

And if lawmakers balk at Kaine's proposals to double the cigarette tax and take $500 million out of the state's "rainy day" fund, the cuts could wind up being deeper, said Penny Hodge, the county's assistant superintendent of finance.

"Up until this year, a bad year was when I was telling the board we're only going to have $1 [million] or $2 million in new money," she said.

Kaine's budget proposal slashes teacher pay raises next year and caps the number of school support positions the state will fund. The idea, according to the governor's office, is to preserve instructional positions as much as possible.

But school districts have leeway in determining where to make the cuts if they decide to maintain current staffing levels. Canada expressed reservations about Kaine's proposed adjustments, saying they would "permanently restructure how education is funded."

Already, county officials have extended an early retirement incentive to trim the ranks. They've also decided to close Central Middle School, an alternative program housed in a crumbling building, and move the program to other middle schools.

Over the past few weeks, officials have also discussed increasing class sizes, consolidating positions, freezing hiring, going to a four-day week and closing facilities. They will refine their cuts in the months ahead, after the General Assembly finalizes a budget for the next fiscal year.

Whatever the board decides to cut, that may not be enough to carry the school system until the economic tide turns.

"I see this recession being dragged out," said school board member Drew Barrineau. "There will be another round coming a year from now."