Public school leaders continued preparing for deep cuts in state funding by offering a package of proposed budget cuts to the Beaufort County Board of Education.

Unlike neighboring Pitt County, where school leaders there say the state’s 2011-2012 budget could result in the elimination of 270 jobs, Beaufort County’s school leaders hope to absorb the expected cuts without job losses.

Depending on action taken in the coming weeks by state lawmakers, Beaufort County Schools could be facing cuts of some $3.2 million in state funds, according to information presented to two school board committees last week.

To offset those cuts, school leaders are looking for “any nook and cranny that we can to fund a pot of money,” BCS Superintendent Don Phipps said last week. “We are trying to stay away from the classroom and personnel as much as we can.”

Instead of job losses, BCS officials have proposed cuts of up to 50 percent in library spending, curriculum projects and equipment purchases; cuts of up to 25 percent in public relations activities, superintendent activities, testing supplies and materials and allotments for school supplies; and flat-rate cuts in general maintenance, school board spending and new band instruments, among others.

Those cuts, combined with cuts in some 16 faculty and staff positions through retirements and attrition, could bring savings of about $1.51 million in the BCS budget for school year 2011-2012, according to information presented to two school-board committees last week.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to do those things,” Phipps said Monday in presenting three pages of budget materials to the committee charged with issues related to school building, grounds and finance.

“We’re trying to throw everything we can think of on the table,” he said. “Our goal is to minimize impacts on personnel.”

On Thursday, Phipps presented the same information to the committee charged with handling personnel and curriculum issues.

School leaders are considering potential cuts of up to 27 percent in teacher supplements, one- and two-day furloughs of some administrators and central-services personnel, converting some employees from 11- and 12-month positions to 10-month positions and cutting calendar workdays from teacher-assistant payrolls for up to 15 days.

These cuts would result in savings of up to $538,312, according to information presented to the board.

Also on the table are potential cuts of 5 percent or 10 percent in funds for teacher assistants. These cuts would result in the loss of 33 or 61 teacher assistant positions, respectively, and savings of $969,514 and $1.81 million, respectively.

The good news for local public schools is that state legislative leaders are not likely to shift to the counties the burden of funding several parts of public education that were previously funded by the state, including costs for worker’s compensation and some liability insurance and the costs of replacing school buses, Phipps said.

That idea was proposed by Gov. Beverly Perdue as part of her $19.9 billion spending plan presented to lawmakers earlier this year.

In fiscal year 2010-2011, about $39.6 million, or about 57 percent, of the Beaufort County Schools budget came from state funds; about $15.8 million, or about 23 percent, from county funds and about $13 million, or about 19 percent, from federal funds. The remaining 1 percent of the budget came from fund balance.

School leaders hope to have a proposed budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year in place later this month.

With debate on the state’s spending plan under way in Raleigh, Phipps said it’s difficult to know how many cutbacks to plan to implement.

“Sadly, we don’t know much more now than we did when we started,” he said.

Also undecided is the amount of funding the schools will receive from Beaufort County.

In fiscal year 2011-2012, the school system faces the end of an agreement with the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners that guaranteed a consistent source of school funds in recent years.

Last month, school-board members were presented a spending plan that called for increases in local current-expense spending by $497,171 from $13.2 million in 2010-2011 to $13.7 million in 2011-2012.

Of that increase, some $256,154 reflected costs for worker’s compensation and liability insurance for school buses that were thought to be shifted to local school systems. The rest of the increase came from fixed expenses such as fuel costs, increases in hospitalization insurance and retirement payments and a projected increase in payments to local charter schools.

The school board is scheduled to begin its budget review at a meeting scheduled for Friday.