The Culver City Unified School District took steps at its meeting Tuesday to slash $2.5 million from its budget over the next two years.

The board of education voted to give Assistant Superintendent of Business Ali Delawalla the green light to draw up a list of proposed cuts for board approval.

It's unclear where the reductions will come from at this point, but CCUSD must cut $1.2 million from its 2011-'12 budget by December. That is the deadline by which the district has to prove to state legistators that it can remain financially solvent for the next three academic years.

However, the district will likely make the cuts ahead of the deadline.

"The sooner you cut, the less pain," said Delawalla. "We're always working on reductions, we're always looking for ways to save."

The upcoming cuts represent the latest battle in the district's fight to stay financially afloat. Last year, the district laid teachers off, cut its middle school music program 50 percent, and stopped busing student athletes to games and meets, among other reductions.

Delawalla said he and his staff would draw up a list of proposed budget cuts to submit for board approval within the next month or two. He does not know what cuts he will propose to the board, he said, but they will involve ongoing expenses.

Students will feel the effects of some cuts immediately and others at a later date, he said. 

However severe the reductions may be, they represent only a portion of what the district initially anticipated it would have to cut this year and next.

Every June, California school districts submit their budgets for the next three academic years to the state for approval. Districts that can't provide proof of their sound financial footing for three straight years file either a qualified or a negative budget with the state.

In June, CCUSD filed a qualified three-year budget. That signals that although the district hasn't gone into the red yet, it runs the risk of doing so within three years unless it makes significant cuts. The state gives districts that filed qualified budgets until Dec. 15 to submit revised budgets that include the necessary spending cuts.

When he filed the qualified budget, Delawalla said, he estimated the district would have to reduce its budget by a total of $5.8 million over the 2010-'11 and 2011-'12 academic years to meet the state requirements for financial solvency.

Thanks to savings from previous cuts and an unexpected windfall from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that original estimate got scaled back more than half to $2.5 million, of which $1.2 million will be cut from the 2010-'11 budget by Dec. 15.

The board's focus on budget matters Tuesday prompted officials to put off a decision on moving sixth-graders from middle school back to elementary schools.

Linwood Howe fifth-grade teacher Casey Chabola said some sixth-graders may not have the maturity to succeed on a middle school campus, and suggested a modified program that would allow them to stay at their elementary schools. Some parents would likely be in favor of such a program, he said. 

"I've had parents tell me, 'If only [my student] could stay in this [elementary school] setting one more year,' " Chabola said.

However, citing the administrative costs such a move would require, board members decided that district officials should continue exploring the issue but the panel held off on taking action.

"I don't know that, given our budget situation, our community thinks this is the discussion we should be having at this point in time," said board member Katherine Paspalis.

Budget woes didn't, however, diminish the board's pride over the district's API score, which was released Monday. The district's API score rose from 803 to 824 on a scale of 1,000. The scores are based on student performance on the state's Standardized Testing and Reporting Program. 

In other business, the board established a five-person citizens' oversight committee to oversee the distribution of money from Measure EE, a parcel tax Culver City voters passed in November 2009 to help the district balance its budget.

The board's next meeting will take place Sept. 28 at City Hall in Council Chambers.

For more information on the API report, visit the California Department of Education website and click on accountability and progress reporting.