Montville — The 2016-17 budget proposal Mayor Ronald McDaniel presented Monday to the Town Council could mean more layoffs from Montville public schools, Superintendent Brian Levesque told the school board Tuesday.

McDaniel's proposal would cut about $425,000 from the $38,314,631 school budget Levesque presented to the school board back in February.

Levesque said at McDaniel's budget presentation that he hoped the council's Finance Committee would reconsider the cuts.

But in his remarks at Tuesday's school board meeting, Levesque said he isn't optimistic that the committee would preserve an amount that would prevent the need for more layoffs.

"I think that cut will be very, very difficult," he said.

Proposals for cuts to state education funding won't help, he added.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed a $517,000 reduction in Education Cost Sharing grants to Montville in state budget revisions he presented Tuesday.

That could pressure the Finance Committee to be even more conservative when it considers its proposals for the town's education budget, Levesque said.

The school board also voted Tuesday to end the contracts of four full-time elementary school teachers and one part-time teacher, which was already included in the $38 million school budget Levesque presented to the school board.

He said the job reductions were necessary because of the declining number of students.

Levesque said that while it will be up to his office and the school board to make cuts where they do the least damage, there's a limit to what he can cut.

"We have to look at things that have the least impact," he said. "I don’t know that anything will not be considered."

That includes teacher's jobs, he said.

Any layoffs will have to be approved by the school board by May 1.

After that, the school board would need to hold termination hearings to end any employee's contract, a more complex process than layoffs, Levesque said.

Any cuts beyond what he already proposed in his budget would be hard, he added.

"Everything has a personal story behind it and impacts people," he said.

The Town Council will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. April 26 at Montville High School.

The council's Finance Committee also will hold individual meetings with department heads, including Levesque, in the next several weeks.

m.shanahan@theday.com