To help fill a $2 million hole in the budget, Salem school officials have proposed cutting salaries and freezing six teaching positions as part of their spending plan in the upcoming school year.

The $42.9 million budget proposal, which is up for discussion at tonight's school board meeting, marks the first budget decline in recent memory. The total falls about $1.8 million short -- a 4.2 percent decrease -- of the current fiscal year.

Savings from the six teaching vacancies and salary reductions add up to $850,000, the largest of the proposed cuts. Specifically, teacher and administrator paychecks would both be trimmed: 1 percent for teachers, 2 percent for administrators.

Further cuts are expected from transportation, textbooks and technology, along with plenty of nickel-and-dime snips throughout the budget.

Superintendent Alan Seibert wrote in an e-mail that these cuts are designed to keep staff.

"People make the difference in the lives of children, not things," he wrote.

However, the budget proposal is a "realistic worst-case scenario," its introduction notes. The numbers do not account for an injection of federal stimulus money that could be worth as much as $1.3 million for the school system. Seibert said the funds, if available, would first be used to restore the pay cuts.

Residents may comment on the budget proposal at tonight's meeting. It begins at 7 p.m. at the School Administration Building on College Avenue.

The school board plans to adopt a budget March 24.