NEW BREMEN — Members of the New Bremen Local Schools Board of Education considered and then tabled a measure Wednesday to eliminate the position of high school principal.

During their regular meeting, they addressed a recommendation by Superintendent Dr. Andrea Townsend to reduce the administration’s workforce by one. The district has three principals.

The recommendation came from the need to stem deficit spending, Townsend told the Sidney Daily News before the meeting. School districts are permitted to ask voters to approve increases in operating levies every two years. New Bremen has not asked for an increase in 15 years.

“We had a work session on the budget,” she said. “We’ve run out of places to pull from. We brainstormed multiple ideas. Staffing was one of them.”

Had the board passed the resolution, they would have then considered another Townsend recommendation: that she assume the duties of the high school principal in addition to her duties as superintendent at no increase in pay.

“That was one scenario,” Townsend said.

Wednesday’s discussion centered on the pros and cons of that scenario, how the work load would be distributed and what other options might be possible.

“The board is always looking at ways to save money,” said President Tom Paul, Thursday. “We hired an outside company that did some financial analysis for us. (Townsend’s) recommendation is to best utilize the resources we have. We’ve seen a 20 percent reduction in enrollment.”

Paul noted that the measure was tabled because, “we wanted to get some additional information about what the district would be like if we went to a two-principal system.” There is no time frame for making a decision. Townsend said Thursday she did not know when the resolution might be on a future meeting agenda.