School officials are deciding, a month after the statewide $23.1 million proposed budget cut was canceled, how they will cope with the $3.5 million cuts the school district passed in early May.

The $23.1 million proposed budget cut was the government’s attempt to take money away from Basic Aid districts, like Palo Alto. Due to many protests, the cut was cancelled, but there is still the school district cut to worry about.

Even though the staff has to keep Paly at the same academic level as before, it has significantly less money to spend. Though the $3.5 million cut is spread out through the entire district, Paly will still have its budget cut drastically. According to assistant principal Charles Merritt, the estimated budget cut at Paly is around 6.5-10%.

Merritt said that he and his fellow administrators were relieved that they did not have to plan for a huge statewide budget cut. However, they’re still concerned about the budget cut the school board proposed. "Any cut has an impact," Merritt said.

Merritt also clarified that the cut would not directly impact students, and explained that it would affect mostly the classified staff. "We’re going to lose some athletic assistance, some time in the opportunity class… things like that," Merritt said.

Several students are also relieved that the budget cuts are cancelled. "[Canceling the huge budget cuts] is better for the school and education of the students," junior Elena Rizza said. "I’m relieved."

Sophomore Sonia Rosner said that she was not only glad the huge budget cut did not happen, but expressed frustration about its necessity. "If Gray Davis had had better policies, we wouldn’t be in debt in the first place," Rosner said.

Earlier in the year, the budget cuts created much panic, leaving some students misinformed about future plans of the school. "I heard that we won’t have a seventh period, and won’t be able to take fun, interesting classes like art," sophomore Molly Koester said.

Another misunderstanding concerned lane changes. Some students thought that they would not be allowed to change classes next year, even for lane changes. Assistant principal Katya Villalobos denied this. She explained that though the procedure for switching classes will change, the decision has nothing to do with the budget.

Some things will still have to be cut, however, but they won’t affect students as much as originally expected. Some sports will be cut, as well as school supplies and the reproduction staff. The school administration is looking for ways to save money on its copy vendor. "It’s a lot better than it could have been," Merritt said, "but it’s still a pinch."

Merritt said that it was possible that, because the government is still in debt, they’d cut even more in future years, but that the staff was mostly concerned with what to do with the current situation. "We’re concerned [about a larger budget cut]… we have people constantly monitoring the situation in Sacramento," Merritt said. "Right now, we’re just doing the best job we can day to day trying to keep things moving."