As the fiscal margins of Virginia public education grow ever tighter, this week Salem schools Superintendent Alan Seibert issued a sharply-worded, two-page statement regarding proposed state budget reductions he said could trim more than $2 million from his city's school funds.

"A reduction of this magnitude cannot be achieved without a negative impact on children," Seibert wrote, later adding that Salem schools "would have no choice but to reduce salary and benefits now that the state is reneging on its responsibility."

According to business director Michael Crew, cuts proposed by the Senate would reduce state aid to the city's schools by 8.7 percent, or $1.7 million. If the House got its way, he said, the figure could reach 11 percent, which he calculated at a reduction as high as $2.3 million.

"These cuts are so severe that there's no way they can be absorbed without reducing personnel costs," Crew said. "The magnitude will be felt in every school system in the commonwealth."

Despite the dire prognosis, Seibert said Thursday it was too early to say what the precise course of treatment would be in terms of reduction of salary and benefits.

"We now have two numbers and we'll wait until we have the actual number," he explained. "That'll let us know how deep we have to go."

But he said he didn't want to wait until that time to speak out.

"There are windows of opportunity to participate in the process," he explained. "We are using this ... to try and inform the members of the conference committee.

"As it is, there's probably only a week and a half before the committee finishes its work."

Seibert said he would personally send a letter, fax and e-mail to every member of the House-Senate conference committee in hopes that the slightly less invasive Senate budget is adopted.

The superintendent recently held a series of budget discussions at each of the city's six schools and issued surveys that were taken by about 360 of the system's roughly 590 employees. The inquiry was used to gauge faculty and staff priorities in the face of the impending changes. He said 95 percent of those surveyed would prefer to take a reduction in pay, or pay part of their health insurance or retirement pension cost, rather than see the work force trimmed.

"Of the seven priorities, reduction of force was the last," he said of the options selected in the survey.

Salary trims when they come "will not be across the board," he continued. "If we have to reduce days from our contracts, we'll start with leadership and take the most from there."

Seibert admitted the issue is an emotional one for him.

"I certainly get a lump in my throat anytime I talk about teaching and children," he said. "We're small and we know each other and we work together and we celebrate births and weddings, we grieve over our losses. It's a great family unit. That makes the process of these changes very painful and personal."

The proposed cuts, he wrote in Thursday's statement, are "not something that a school board or a city council can fix."

"This is a problem at the state level and children should not be expected to bear the burden."