The Buckeye Local School District will close two buildings and reduce its non-teaching staff in an effort to ensure the district is "fiscally stable after a levy was defeated at the polls last week."

At the end of the 2009-10 school year in June, North Middle School in Brilliant and West Elementary School in Adena will close.

At the opening of the 2010-11 school year, students who would have attended North Middle School will be reassigned to Buckeye SouthWest Middle School in Tiltonsville. At that same time, students who would have attended classes at West Elementary School in Adena will be reassigned to one of the district's three remaining elementary schools: Northwest Elementary in Smithfield, Buckeye North Elementary in Brilliant or Buckeye South Elementary in Yorkville.

Meanwhile, reductions in force for non-teaching personnel will take effect in September of the coming 2009-10 school year, though no specific date for the cuts was shared at Monday's board of education meeting in Dillonvale. The positions to be eliminated include one clerk, two custodians and one educational aid.

Certain other non-teaching staff members will see their hours reduced by 30 minutes per work day.

The new approach to Buckeye Local's deteriorating financial situation can be found in a five-page contingency plan shared with board members late last week and further hammered out behind closed doors on Monday during an hour-long executive session held at the beginning of the board's regular monthly meeting.

The school district's board room was filled to overflowing with more than 40 people gathered at the central office.

The next regular meeting of the Buckeye Local School District Board of Education will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at the Central offices in Dillonvale.