Chuck Kirman / Star staff Delaney Willet seals an envelope at Brookside School as part of a campaign to protest school budget cuts.

Photos by Chuck Kirman / Star staff From left, Brendan Ahdoot, 10, Bijon Yeoh, 5, and his mother, Sepideh Yeoh, stuff envelopes as part of a letter-writing campaign at Brookside School to protest budget cuts. The letters will be sent to state officials.

Students at Brookside School in Oak Park load boxes of stuffed envelopes protesting school budget cuts.

A stack of papers sat on a table in the back of an Ojai auditorium Tuesday night, listing dozens of possible cuts to schools.

The Ojai Unified School District, like districts throughout California, is bracing for a possible 10 percent cut in state funding for the 2008-09 school year. Making matters worse, Ojai's enrollment has dropped for the past eight years, further reducing the funding it gets based on the number of students.

School closures, layoffs, increased class sizes, elimination of hot lunches and cuts in teacher compensation have made Ojai's list of potential reductions. The district says it needs to shave $2 million from a $25 million annual budget.

More than 150 teachers, employees and parents crowded the Ojai school board meeting Tuesday night, dozens standing up to urge the board to find some way to protect their schools.

"We're here because we're scared," said Tami Holland, who has three children at Meiners Oaks School. "We love our community and our school district."

Parents said they understand the district is in an impossible situation. Dozens have written letters to state officials asking them to fight against the cuts outlined in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget. Some have offered to raise money locally, including trying to pass a parcel tax to bring the district more cash.

Parents don't want their neighborhood schools to close, several said Tuesday, and teachers, already bracing for layoffs, said they don't think they deserve or can survive a pay cut.

The financial picture could change by the time the Legislature approves a budget, and districts are hoping the state's May budget revisions will include fewer cuts to public schools.

The Ojai board has yet to make decisions about what to cut. On Tuesday, trustees discussed what they wanted to take off the hit list, but nothing was removed. District officials asked to bring more information to the board before those decisions are made.

"This is a very painful process," said board President Steve Fields. "We don't want to make any of these cuts."

Trustee Rikki Horne raised the possibility of using reserve funds to balance the budget — an account the district is required by the state to keep. The board asked to hear more about that possibility at a future meeting, as well as various proposals to generate money, like possible fees for student busing.

Some parents Tuesday suggested a parcel tax, although others pointed out the idea failed three years ago, and the economy is worse now.

"We'll give it our all," Glenn Fout, a Meiners Oaks parent, said about a parcel tax drive. If such efforts don't succeed, he said, parents would sit down with the district to look at closing schools, knowing "we did all we could to save our schools."

At Summit, a tiny elementary school with about 50 children, parents pledged this week to donate $30,000 to the district if school closures are taken off the hit list. The district estimates closing the small school could save about $30,000 a year.

"I want to see all of our schools thrive," Summit parent Lauren Coyne said, "and the first step is to keep them open."