PEKIN, IOWA -- On Thursday, KTVO visited the Pekin School District and spoke with Superintendent John Dotson. He said that the Pekin District, like others, has to think outside the box in scaling back expenditures in this tough economy.

Dotson added that the state cuts, as well as a decline in enrollment, have factored into the tighter budget.

"We are down 32 students which will affect our budget for next year. And we also, like everybody else, have suffered the 10 percent across-the-board cut," Superintendent Dotson said. "So a combination of the budget cut and the declining enrollment of 32 students, basically I'm going into next year with about half a million dollars less in my budget to work with."

He also said that the Pekin School District works with both the Cardinal and Van Buren School District in sharing staff among the schools; included in that sharing of staff are faculty members, the Director of Transportation and the Director of Maintenance and Operations.

"Just to try to make things stretch out a little bit more, if we can help out another school or they can help us out. It could help maintain full employment for some of our staff and it's a better resource, a better use of our staff," Superintendent Dotson said.

There are also staff reductions, and vacant positions will not likely be replaced.

"We did put a voluntary early retirement program in place and we had five individuals take advantage of that. And those positions most likely will not be replaced. But we still have to go through some other staff reductions of certified and uncertified staff, so those will be coming out in the near future," Superintendent Dotson said.

He added that districts are working to figure out how technology can be used to share classes and/or teachers with neighboring districts.

Throughout March, KTVO is speaking with school district officials throughout Southeast Iowa regarding their Fiscal Year Budget.