A month after residents passed a three-year, 1-cent tax referendum that will provide around $75 million for Baldwin County schools, school officials are cautioning now that “difficult” economic decisions could have to be made in the future regarding the system’s financial outlook.

At the Board of Education’s regular monthly meeting April 22, the board unanimously approved a resolution regarding a Financial Improvement Plan for the system, which includes cost-saving measures such as central office cuts, district level adjustments and school level adjustments.

While Thursday’s resolution does not enact any immediate action regarding cuts or school closures, it does lay out a plan for future actions should the need for further cuts arise.

“This is, remember, an open process,” said interim superintendent JaNay Dawson. “This will take place over several years. It’s not a date or time.”

The central office cuts mentioned in the plan include the second phase of the system’s Reduction in Force plan it passed last year, which would reduce some locally funded central office positions to cut costs. The district level adjustments would reduce support staffs in the central office and at local schools, as well as explore any possible school or facility closures.

One of the schools that could be shuttered in future cost-saving measures is the Fairhope K-1 Center, which was one of two schools in danger of immediate closure had last month’s tax referendum not passed.

A number of parents and teachers from Fairhope were present at the meeting to lobby on behalf of keeping the school open. Though the option exists to move students to Fairhope Elementary School, parents say that having a separate facility is beneficial to both students and the community.

“I realize you have a very difficult task during very difficult times, but I fail to see how closing a successful school is a reasonable solution to the problem,” said Ann Smith, a Fairhope parent. “As a taxpayer who campaigned in favor of the 1-cent tax, I would be appalled if the board decided to close the K-1.

“If you choose to close our award-winning school just weeks after we have voted yes for the tax, you will leave many people wondering just what you are doing with our hard-earned money. My yes vote was a vote of confidence in the board and it was a vote of confidence in my children’s excellent schools.”

Board member Angie Swiger said that it wasn’t in the best interest of the community to discuss any potential school closings after recently passing the tax hike.

“We do still have some difficult decisions to make, but personally I don’t think that this is the best timing to discuss the K-1 center when we’re fresh off a time when we all had so much cooperation and all worked so diligently to have the tax passed,” she said. “I feel that we built a great deal of trust and cooperation and do not care to see that torn down by such an emotional issue at this time.”

A number of non-tenured teachers were non-renewed at the meeting for reasons including cost-containment, poor performance or temporary status with the system. In a release sent out last week, school officials noted that overall, the school system’s enrollment increased by more than 700 students this school year, meaning that the system will gain from the state 46 additional teacher units in 2010-11.

At schools where student count declined, however, principals will have to determine which non-tenured employees can be terminated in order to bring staffing levels in line with the system’s 2010-11 allotment. The allotment is not related to the 1-cent tax hike, and all terminations, Dawson said, are “standard practice” for all school systems at the end of a year.

“We are still precisely on track with the employment goals we committed to before the March 23 referendum,” Dawson said. “The penny tax prevented mass layoffs of additional personnel.”