MARION, Ill. — School leaders asked and parents, students and faculty members answered. Millions of dollars has to be sliced from the Marion Unit 2 school district's budget. The school board took ideas from the community and came up with a new list of cuts.

The district's finance committee recommended hiking student fees, including everything from lunch to summer school, even sports.

Ten staff positions could be eliminated and the budget for district supplies could also be smaller. That's for purchasing things like ink and toner.

The largest part of the plan includes keeping parts of a brand new school closed. The new Creal Springs school is slated to open this fall. Construction isn't complete.

"A majority of board members stated they wanted to do the K-5 option," said Wayne Tate, Marion School Board President.

Only one-third of the building would be used. The rest would sit empty. Leaders initially constructed the building to serve as a middle school but now the district can't afford to run it.

"I think a lot of people didn't pay attention and didn't realize these were real issues," said Thomas Wolf, a local attorney.

Wolf has been saying for years this would happen. He and another attorney helm the Committee For Fiscal Responsibility, a local political action committee.

"I did predict that the operations would put a huge strain on the district," said Wolf.

Ads from his PAC ran in the Marion paper encouraging leaders to shutter part of the new school.

It appears for the district that now seems to be a viable solution, just one way to trim almost $3 million from next year's budget.

"What this does is get the annual operating budget for next year breaking even," said Tate.

Board members held a meeting Monday night at 6 p.m. to present the revised list of cuts to the public.