Rather than losing employees, the Cherokee County School District hopes saving money will allow it to absorb mid-year budget cuts.

State lawmakers cut $400,000 in school funding from the district's $61.7 million budget during a special session in late October, a move made necessary due to a shortfall in state tax revenue collections.

Cherokee County is one of the county's largest employers with 1,100 employees.

County schools hired only 22 new teachers over the summer. No new staff was added when the district opened the Gaffney and Blacksburg High ninth grade additions, Goucher Elementary classroom addition and the Cherokee Community Learning Center this school year.

Employee furloughs and staffing cuts will be a last resort for the district once cost-cutting measures are put in place, Cherokee County School Superintendent Dr. Bill James said.

"We could see another budget cut in March," James said. "We don't want to lose people or have to furlough any employees like other state agencies."

School trustees approved a $61.7 million budget this summer. State budget cuts began to occur almost immediately upon the spending plan taking effect in July.

The first round of cuts in August resulted in the district losing $736,000 in state funding.

Lawmakers cut an unspecified amount last month from district budgets for instructional materials, school bus driver salaries, school bus purchases and school-to-work programs.

"We are still waiting on information on the amount of cuts that were made in areas like school bus driver salaries," finance director Ben Childs said. "This has been a challenging year. We will just have to carefully watch what we spend."