Wake County teachers and school administrators are anticipating dealing with a budget reduction on classroom and instructional supplies.

Due to the economy, the school board agreed to slash more than $11 million from its budget and give money back to the state and county.

Most of the cuts impact central services, or administration, but classroom and instructional supplies will still lose about a million dollars.

The school system estimated the reduction boils down to about $7.25 per student. At Green Hope Elementary School in Cary, fourth grade math teacher Jamie Harris said that money is used for all sorts of essential supplies.

"Calculators ... down to paper, pens, crayons and markers," Harris said.

Harris, who spends about a thousand dollars herself on supplies each year, can't make up the difference.

"We may be asking the communities to say, ‘hey we need some extra things,'" Harris said.

Some parents like Kim Johnson said they're fine with that.

"There are certain things that you want your child to have," Johnson said.

Green Hope Elementary School Principal, Lisa Spalding, feels confident PTA's will help as much as they can. She also explained there is a procedure which allows schools to use left over funds from materials like textbooks to purchase other supplies, which could help offset the budget cut.

"With the community support and the things that we have we're hoping we can just be conservative like we're all being even in our homes," Spalding said.

She and Harris said it might take some creativity, but they'll find a way to keep the essentials in the classroom.

"It's what we do. And if these children are going to be successful the needs will be met one way or another, and that's our responsibility as educators," Harris said.

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