Meranda Watling, Journal & Courier

On Thursday, Pam Smith came home late after attending a meeting about Tippecanoe School Corp.'s financial situation to find a note from her 8-year-old daughter.

Money For the School," the Hershey Elementary student had scrawled. Attached to it was $6 from her piggy bank.

Like her daughter, Smith's initial reaction after reading about the $7.8 million in budget cuts the county's largest school district is facing was, "How can I help?"

At tonight's school board meeting, the district will take the first of several actions to address the budget shortfall, caused in part by a recent state funding cut and in part by other drops in revenue. Those actions include a 3 percent pay cut for administrators and non-teaching staff, and starting the reduction-in-force, or RIF, process for an unspecified number of teachers.