BAY MINETTE, Ala. — The Baldwin County Board of Education is expected late Tuesday to rescind a 1-cent sales and use tax resolution and approve emergency measures to add tenured personnel to the chopping block in the wake of a budgetary crisis created by steep declines in sales and property tax revenue, state proration and increases in equity funding.

The meeting will be at 5 p.m. at the Baldwin County Board of Education’s central office in Loxley.

BOE president Tracy Roberts and superintendent Faron Hollinger said the actions were necessary to balance the budget.

The BOE passed the sales tax resolution July 23 and presented it to the Baldwin County Commission for consideration. The proposal prompted the formation of a panel comprised of legislators, school and county officials who met three times to address the school system’s funding shortage.

“Because of the joint meetings we have had with the Commission and legislators, the position I have taken is that now is not the right time to ask for a sales tax,” BOE president Tracy Roberts told the panel Monday. “We need to take every available step before trying to pass a sales tax.”

Hollinger said the recently enacted Reduction in Force policy will be invoked which waives termination processes during severe proration. “It’s the only way we can balance our budget,” Hollinger said.

Details of the number of tenured personnel affected was not available. According to school records, more than 450 staff positions have been cut since 2008, two schools were closed, salaries were frozen, personal leave benefits have been reduced, capital projects are on a back burner and 35 positions have been cut in the central office.

Other actions on the BOE budgetary agenda include freezing expenditures to avoid a negative fund balance, consider reduction of certificated personnel in the spring of 2010 and create a communication plan to educate the community about the school system’s financial crisis, according to documents presented Monday.

The BOE also will seek changes in equity funding. Enacted in the mid 1990s, the state program withholds 10 mills from school systems for distribution to poorer systems across the state.

Withholding began at about $1 million and now is over $40 million a year, the largest match of any school system in the state, Hollinger said.

The BOE now is considering a four-day work week, shortening the school year on a temporary basis and seeking legislative action to cap equity funding, provide flexibility with equity funding during proration and consideration for rapidly growing school systems when applying the equity funding formula.

State Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, said he has been in contact with the Alabama Education Association and other agencies about the funding crisis which also is affecting other school systems.

“I plan to monitor this at the state level and we will do what we can to help.”

Commissioner Wayne Gruenloh, who chairs the panel, said the panel should meet later to apprise the financial health of the school system after fiscal numbers are finalized.

Meetings are planned Oct. 30 and Dec. 11 at 9 a.m. in the Baldwin County Annex in Robertsdale.