MADRID - The Madrid-Waddington Central School Board of Education will decide Thursday whether to cut or reduce the time allotted to its library media specialist position.

As it mulls filling the library media specialist position, the board is considering cutting the position from full-time to half-time or combining it with another position. The position, which was vacated last year, is currently held by a long-term substitute.

“Under state requirements, it’s a half-time position,” Superintendent Lynn M. Roy said Friday. “We are looking at whether this person could be combined with another area for example with a teacher certification.”

The change would add to the district’s growing list of education cuts in the past several years. Positions and programs in elementary education, art, music, health, driver’s education, and elementary counseling have already been cut or reduced through attrition.

The cuts are part of the district’s overall efforts to stave off insolvency. The district is expected to be no longer financially viable in 4.3 years, Mrs. Roy said.

The board has yet to determine the savings of reducing the position, but Mrs. Roy said it won’t significantly impact the overall budget.

“That’s something we are going to discuss,” Mrs. Roy said.

The district has appealed to state legislators to rework the state aid formula, in an effort to curb the use of its fund balance to close the gaps in the district’s budget.

“The current aid formula does not give credit for those districts below the combined ratio of .65,” Mrs. Roy said. “Madrid-Waddington is at .515.”

A meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the high school library.

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