SPOTSWOOD — Budget cuts to make up for lost state aid will include the elimination of the school district’s pull-out basic skills program and some of the sports offerings at Spotswood High School in 2010-11.

Also being cut are the district’s reading specialist program, the high school vocational foods program, and stipends for Memorial Middle School teachers.

Staff reductions will include 15 full-time positions — eight teachers, two media specialists, two guidance counselors and three buildings and grounds workers — along with three part-time teachers, two part-time secretaries and three aides.

The Board of Education released details of the cuts during a March 30 budget hearing.

“We told our residents that in the event of a budget defeat, the result would almost certainly be further layoffs, unless the governing bodies of Spotswood and Helmetta limited the amount of any tax levy reductions,” board President Rich O’Brien said later.

The board, he said, “regrets the cuts we were forced to make” but had no choice, given the loss of more than $1.4 million in state aid.

On top of the 22 percent state aid reduction, the board was forced to do without $375,000 in surplus funds that had to be used in the current school year’s budget after Gov. Chris Christie cut the aid that the district had anticipated for 2009-10, O’Brien has said.

Further widening the budget deficit was the state-imposed regionalization of the Helmetta and Spotswood school districts last year. A change in the funding formula due to the merge will result in Spotswood getting $783,102 less from Helmetta than it would have received under the former tuition based formula.

The $25.8 million budget carries a tax levy of $14.8 million, which is up 3.5 percent over the current school year but under the state’s 4 percent cap. With this tax levy, school taxes would increase by $143 annually for the owner of a Spotswood home assessed at the borough average of $254,600. The increase for a Helmetta resident would be $51 per year.

Sports programs being eliminated include the high school golf program, which will save $30,000, and all freshman sports, saving another $48,000. O’Brien said the golf program was eliminated after a review of the number of athletes participating versus the cost of each sport district-wide. He said that about 50 student athletes may be affected by the loss of freshman sports, but “some of those are gifted enough athletically to play on junior varsity or varsity teams.”

Cuts to middle school stipends, which include “teaching specials” such as art, will save the district $39,000, O’Brien said.

Exactly which staff members will be eliminated come September remains to be seen.

“Due to seniority rights, some of the teachers notified of the elimination of their position will ‘bump’ junior employees from jobs,” O’Brien said. “That, coupled with possible retirements or resignations, leaves it unclear right now as to which teachers will be where next September. This budget calls for the elimination of positions at each of our four schools and district-wide positions such as custodians.”

Asked how the district would make do with the loss of the three buildings and grounds workers, he said the remaining maintenance staff will have to pick up the additional workload.

Also saving the district money is a salary freeze on non-union employees, totaling $21,017. Officials noted during last week’s hearing that the teachers union declined to take a wage freeze. The board had offered to use any money saved from a salary freeze to restore some of the lost positions.

“At this point, the union does not want to agree to freeze salaries,” O’Brien said.

The board has installed more energy-efficient lighting and decreased the cost of energy supplies through pool purchasing, bringing a reduction of $200,000 in energy costs in the upcoming budget year. Though it was planning to make purchases to replace aged and inefficient HVAC units in the school, it will defer those and other capital purchases, saving $378,244.

“We were also going to replace aging computers in next year’s operating budget,” O’Brien said. “We deferred those replacements to a future year.” The computers would have cost $320,000.

The board also removed miscellaneous supplies, for $208,000, as well as Xerox copiers ($20,000), special services vendors ($65,000), professional development ($47,000) and textbooks ($60,000) from the budget.

Voters will have their say on the budget during the April 20 school election. Polls will be open 2-9 p.m.