Local school officials are bracing themselves for the impact of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed mid-year cuts to education.

For Napa Valley Unified School District, this would mean a $4 million hit to the district’s so-called revenue limit — money NVUSD receives annually per student from the state.

The $4 million figure represents the district’s share of the governor’s $1.8 billion in proposed cuts to kindergarten through        12th-grade education statewide, according to H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance.

A proposal from legislative Democrats — which would have meant millions in cuts to California teachers’ cost-of-living pay increases and funds for instructional materials, training and other programs — failed when the governor vetoed it earlier this month.

NVUSD Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Debbie Brenner said regardless of which proposal is adopted, NVUSD officials are rooting out new ways to control the costs of doing business.

“The district and bargaining units have agreements about not increasing (teachers’ salaries) ... not getting a lottery payment and not putting what was going to be a .68 percent (cost of living pay increase) on the salary schedules,” she said, adding that the district is saving about $3 million toward NVUSD’s annual budget of $117 million through these efforts.

Local teachers and district officials are certainly not alone in their efforts to find innovative ways to save money. Palmer said although it would not be offered until the 2009-10 school year, the governor is proposing extending a one-time offer to California school districts to cut their academic year short by a week.

If all California school districts implemented it, the move would save about $1.1 billion, he said.

“We are not directing the school districts to take those days off,” he said. “We are giving them the opportunity, if they so choose, to go down by five days without incurring any financial penalty, which they currently would.”

NVUSD Superintendent John Glaser called the proposal to shorten the school year “a step in the wrong direction.”

In the meantime, district officials say, it is difficult to predict whether there will be teacher layoffs until a proposal is passed.

“We’re just trying to scrutinize everything, all of our expenditures,” Glaser said. “I wouldn’t say that we have a formal hiring or travel (freeze). We’re just trying to scrutinize positions and make (funding) go as far as it can.”

Napa County Office of Education Superintendent Barbara Nemko said the county office will remain relatively unscathed by mid-year cuts because it gets only about 15 percent of its funding from per-student allotments from the state.

“Obviously, we’re worried about what could happen with cash flow, but anyone who does business with the state right now is worried about that,” she said.

Nemko added that NCOE officials are planning for a       5 percent cut to all programs run out of the county office in anticipation of a lean 2009-10 state budget.

“Obviously, we’re looking very carefully at any expenditures. For next year, the biggest issue we have is with the court and community schools,” she said, adding that NCOE teacher layoffs may be in the forecast in coming months.

“These are tough times and we’re all sharing the pain,” she said. “It’s very hard because we don’t have specifics. … It would be nice if we could get a budget out of the state so we’d know the plan, rather than having to scramble for answers.”