It’s no secret the Litchfield School District has fallen on hard financial times.

But so far, the district has been able to weather the storm and avoid cutting program offerings or increasing class sizes.

“The students coming through the system (today) have the same opportunities as kids eight years ago,” Superintendent Bill Wold said last week.

However, for that to continue, Wold said, Litchfield School District needs to increase its current excess operating levy by having voters support a referendum in November. Without a larger levy, the district will have little choice but to cut programs and increase classroom size, he said.

School Board members took no action after Wold’s levy presentation but are expected to discuss the need for a levy referendum at their July 28 meeting.

“As we stated this year, we have nowhere else to go but classrooms and programs because we’ve practically gone down to the bones,” said Wold, noting the district anticipates $300,000 in budget cuts for 2009-10.

Read more in the July 17 Independent Review.