MARIETTA - At the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck, the Marietta school board on Friday voted to furlough teachers and other staff.

The motion was made by board member Tony Fasola, with the board voting 7-0 to approve the recommendation.

The district's 600 teachers were furloughed for the Jan. 8 snow day and for Feb. 17; administrators were furloughed for the Jan. 8 snow day and for Feb. 16; and bus drivers were furloughed for the Jan. 8 snow day.

One furlough day saves the 7,800-student system about $300,000, Lembeck said.

The board has the option of dipping into its reserves, which are at $14.2 million, but elected not to do that.

"My response to that is we've got more tough times ahead, and we know that the FY 11 budget is going to be a difficult one to make decisions and a difficult one to share with people," Lembeck said.

"We know that the governor's proposed budget calls for further reductions, so therefore we don't want to be caught without reserves," she said. "... There are school districts in this state and around the nation that don't have reserves. In fact, if our state had reserves we probably wouldn't be in this position at this time."

The district's $14.2 million reserves could run the system for just over two months, she said.

In other news, the board heard a presentation from a Duluth company that claimed to be able to cut the system's 75 active school buses by 15 through a software routing program that finds the most efficient directions in which to pick up school children. The software factors in such information as where sex offenders live as well as road construction in determining the best bus routes to take. A regular education school bus, including the driver's salary and fuel, costs the district about $30,000 a year, while a special education bus costs about $40,000, said Danny Smith, the district's director of support.

Were the board to sign up with the routing program presented by Igor Babushkin, CEO of Gicsoft, Inc. of Duluth, and cut one bus route for a savings of $30,000, it would pay Gicsoft a one time payment of $20,000 to realize a savings of $10,000 for the first year, Smith said.

The board will consider the proposal at its next meeting on Tuesday.