POWAY -- When students return to Poway Unified School District's 36 campuses next fall, there will be fewer school buses on the road, shortened elementary library hours and less money for coaches, music, art and physical education on campuses, officials say.

The changes reflect roughly $10.7 million in cuts to personnel and programs that trustees adopted throughout the spring in an effort to scale back expenditures in the face of state budget cuts. The governor has proposed slicing about $4 billion out of the state's education spending for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The local cuts, including the elimination of 15 teaching positions, a handful of district psychologists, custodians and reading specialists, are expected to be finalized Monday night when district trustees adopt a budget for 2008-09.

The lean spending plan for the next fiscal year shows a significant drop in both revenue and expenditures from prior years.

Officials are projecting that the district will collect roughly $257.3 million in revenue from local, state and federal governments, and spend about $1.7 million more than that, or $259 million over the course of the year. The district is expected to cover its shortfall by drawing from its reserves of roughly $19.6 million.

Poway Unified has an estimated operating budget of $261.3 million for the current fiscal year, and it had a budget of $265.2 million in 2006-07.

According to the district's multiple-year plan, spending will not rise to those levels again until the 2009-10 school year.

In the last month, some money has been pumped back into classrooms with news that the state's proposed education cuts might not be as severe as were originally proposed. Superintendent Don Phillips said that some of first things to be added back to the district were 110 classroom teachers, nurses and counselors who had been laid off in May. Those positions were added back, he said, because teachers play an integral role in meeting the district's goals of college readiness for each student and increasing academic achievement overall.

Rehiring the teachers also meant that the district essentially was able to maintain current class sizes, with maybe one or two more students per teacher in some middle and high school classrooms.

On a separate front, the superintendent will share information he got from parent focus groups on what's working and what can be improved in the district.

He will also present an updated list of goals for the district through 2014.

Poway Unified's monthly meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Morning Creek Elementary School, 10925 Morning Creek Drive South, in Sabre Springs, one of many communities the district serves.

A copy of the agenda is available at powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/about/board/default.asp.

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.