Councilwoman Anita Price addresses the Roanoke School Board.

Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Debra Swain Elliott listens Tuesday as the Roanoke School Board discusses possible budget cuts in the face of reduced state spending.

A majority of the Roanoke School Board is interested in pursuing legal action against the commonwealth of Virginia for an alleged breach of state constitutional rights.

The board voted 5-2 on a motion introduced by member Jason Bingham, who said the state -- by cutting millions of dollars in state aid to localities -- is not fulfilling the constitutional requirement to establish and maintain a high-quality program of education.

Todd Putney and Lori Vaught voted against the motion, which directs the school board's attorney to gather information and report back.

"I don't see what it will get us, and I think it will distract some of our resources," Putney said.

The board is expecting a deficit of between $4 million and $16 million as its members await final appropriations to be hashed out by state lawmakers.

The best case scenario of a $4 million shortfall would be rosy, Superintendent Rita Bishop said. And the worst case of $16 million is unfathomable. Neither extreme is likely, she said.

Instead city school officials are projecting a reduction in state aid of between $10 million and $13 million. The superintendent and her executive staff presented five fiscal scenarios to the school board at a meeting Tuesday evening based on shortfalls of $4 million, $7 million, $10 million, $13 million and $16 million.

Certain cuts were proposed across the board:

-- Tightening high school scheduling, which will reduce secondary staffing by 25 to 34 teaching positions.

-- An early retirement incentive that 51 employees accepted. One of those takers was city Councilwoman Anita Price, who is a guidance counselor at Round Hill Primary (Montessori) School.

-- Closing CITY school, a high school honors program with fewer than 50 students.

Other deeper cuts don't come into play until the shortfall hits the $10 million mark:

-- Reducing 20 K-8 teaching positions.

-- Closing Round Hill Primary and transferring the students to nearby Huff Lane Intermediate School.

-- Declining state class size reduction funds, which require a local match. Together the $4 million funds about 55 teaching positions.

School board member Courtney Penn opposed giving up the class size reduction funding from the state.

"Taking that $2.6 million off the table ... is probably the most costly $1.4 million of savings we could find in this budget, given the extreme poverty that is in our locality," he said.

Tom Dunleavy, the division's executive director for K-8 education, told the board that closing Round Hill may necessitate giving up the $2.6 million. He said the available permanent classroom space at Huff Lane is four classrooms shy of the space needed to meet the reduced class size requirements. There is one modular unit on site, and adding another may provide the space needed to close Round Hill but not to keep the state aid for class size reductions.

The possible solution was met with mixed signals on the board because it goes against the board's equity policy to move away from modular classrooms but fits with the board's philosophy to have K-5 all under one roof.

Round Hill instructs kindergarten through second grade, while third to fifth grades attend Huff Lane.

At the $13 million mark, 30 more K-8 teaching positions and 18 other instructional positions may be cut.

If the deficit rises to $16 million, the K-8 teachers and other instructional positions would be further reduced to state Standards of Quality minimums, which may mean a net loss of about 110 full-time positions.

Eliminating the preschool program for 4-year-old children has been struck from the list of potential cuts.

The school board will meet at 7:30 a.m. Monday at the central administration building on Douglass Avenue to adopt a preliminary categorical budget.