Norwich — A total of 17 certified public school staff and another 17 noncertified positions would be eliminated if the full Board of Education approves the proposed $3.2 million in budget cuts reviewed Wednesday by the board's budget committee.

School administrators presented the committee with a partially enumerated list of proposed cuts, topped by the 34 full-time positions, now that the City Council has approved a total $75.4 million 2016-17 public school budget.

The full Board of Education will finalize the budget at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday at Kelly Middle School.

The certified staff positions include eight classroom teachers, four instructional specialists, three reading teachers, a science coordinator and a special education student services support position.

The certified position cuts would save a projected total of $560,000, including savings in health insurance and the cost of paying unemployment compensation to qualified staff, school Business Administrator Athena Nagel said.

Noncertified positions including seven family liaisons, three tutors, three classroom paraeducators and a technical support person.

Those cuts would save about $160,000, Nagel said.

Several labor unions representing school employees have agreed to requested concessions to offset some of the budget cuts, Nagel said.

Since the Board of Education hasn't yet received written agreements on most of the cuts, she said she could not provide details.

In May, the custodians union agreed to a “hard freeze” on all salaries in exchange for one additional day off, saving $36,000.

Nagel said other agreements with unions representing school nurses, administrators and paraeducators would be similar.

Non-union employees already would receive no raises in the new budget, she said.

The classroom teaching cuts would result in larger class sizes and in some schools, classes with combined grades — as was done in other budget cuts several years ago.

Superintendent Abby Dolliver said the John B. Stanton School is hardest hit by the larger class sizes, because grades with three “moderate sized” classes in many cases were merged into two 'larger' classes,” Dolliver said.

Two combined grade classes are proposed at the Uncas School, one with second- and third-graders and a class with fourth- and fifth-graders.

Another “unanticipated consequence” of the teaching cuts is that some remaining teachers will be shifted from grades they have taught for several years — and trained for and developed working relations with colleagues — to very different grades.

In one case, a kindergarten teacher would shift to sixth grade.

Dolliver and Board of Education member Aaron “Al” Daniels said changes like that can be expected to affect the entire school system's progress on state standardized tests.

Other savings are expected to be realized by expanding the city school system's special education programs, reducing the need to send students out of the district to specialized programs elsewhere.

Cuts to curriculum supplies, shifting some staff health insurance to grant funding, and cutting expected costs in property and liability insurance would result in more savings in the budget.

But Nagel said there are also new increases to the budget for utility costs, substitute teachers and to purchase equipment and furniture for the expanded special education programs.

No cost breakdowns were available on those items at Wednesday's budget meeting.

c.bessette@theday.com