FREMONT — With the threat of a financial takeover from Alameda County education officials looming and community debate intensifying over whether to keep paying for police on campuses, Fremont’s school board has shaved nearly $9 million from the upcoming school year’s budget by eliminating vacant positions, dipping into its reserves and delaying the opening of a Warms Springs elementary school.

In doing so, they managed to avoid further increasing class sizes, furloughing employees, or laying off custodians — appeasing many students, teachers, and some parents who urged the board to avoid those measures.

The district, which serves about 35,000 students across more than 40 schools, and operates on a roughly $400 million budget, also plans to cut $200,000 from a college connection program, and $250,000 from books and supplies.

In the long run, the district also hopes to save about $2.2 million by switching its workforce away from CalPERS — the state’s pension and benefits program for public employees — and finding a new provider to manage those accounts. Such a major shift would have to be negotiated with the district’s various employee unions to become a reality, so it may not be able to be cut this year.

Delaying the opening of the brand new but still vacant Lila Bringhurst Elementary School in Warm Springs until the 2022-23 school year is expected to save the district about $800,000, staff reports said.

The district board, up until just minutes before the meeting Wednesday, was facing a requirement by the Alameda County Office of Education to outline about $17.6 million in cuts from the upcoming school year budget, or risk having the county office assign a fiscal administrator to the district.

But due to an expected increase in funding from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s current state budget projections, the county allowed the district to reduce the budget to a minimum of just $7 million, Superintendent CJ Cammack told the board during the meeting.

The total budget reductions, including the roughly $2.2 million from the possible benefits plan switch, total $8.84 million.

While the the long-running and controversial School Resource Officer program was on the list of possible cuts to save $885,000 annually, the board ultimately decided to only chop half of that, and keep about $442,000 to partially fund the program. With full funding, the program has historically placed a Fremont Police Department officer at each of the district’s six high schools, and has oversight from a sergeant.

The program was axed by the previous school board by a split vote in November after a task force recommended it be shut down, primarily because of concerns over disproportionate arrests of Black and Latinx students.

However, in January, the current board reversed course and reinstated the program after an outcry from some parents. The board said at the time it would continue to not spend any money on the program during distance learning, and would renegotiate the program agreement with the city.

A large chunk of the roughly three hours the board spent deliberating on Wednesday was centered around the police program.

The program, in place for roughly two decades, costs around $2.5 million annually, and about $885,000 would need to be picked up by the school district to fully fund the program, according to the school district.

School district staff told the board at its meeting Wednesday that Fremont police officials said they will not continue the program unless the school district also contributes financially to it. Officials said the department previously indicated it would consider offering some officers to the district at no cost.

“Without a fiscal contribution, we wouldn’t have an SRO program,” Cammack said.

Board member Dianne Jones said she was alarmed about the “mixed messaging” from the city.

“I’m deeply concerned that the police chief signaled to the community” that some officers would remain if the school district cut its side of the funding, Jones said. “And now that appears not to be the case.”

Jones was the only board member to vote against the lists of cuts because she was opposed to funding the police program, while the rest of the board agreed to fund it at 50 percent, though it’s unclear what will result from ongoing negotiations between the city and the district.

“Keeping the dollars there will at least give us a better, a good faith discussion going with the (Fremont Police Department),” board member Vivek Prasad said.

“If we cut everything and then it doesn’t show the right attitude from our side,” he said.

Board president Larry Sweeney said the “vast majority of people” he speaks with from “all demographics” support the police program, even though dozens of students and teachers repeatedly have called on the board to eliminate funding it altogether.

Sweeney also noted that all the current high school principals want to keep the program running and asked the board, “How can we turn our backs on the six site administrators who we trust everyday with the safety of those schools?”