CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The Cleveland School Board amended its current budget Thursday to reflect plunging revenue from sales and property taxes.

Board members trimmed $145,200 from revenue and expenditures. The schools budget is $33.8 million for the 2007-08 fiscal year that ends in six weeks.

Budget Director Brenda Carson told board members at a luncheon that tax revenues that looked good in January have dropped precipitously.

“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ms. Carson said. “We’ll hope for the best in May and June.”

She said the amendment is not a budget cut but reflects the revenue and spending drop.

Board member Max Carroll said that trimming $145,00 from a $33 million budget “is not bad, although I wish it was plus.”

Board members and director Dr. Rick Denning see the amendment as a bad sign for the immediate future.

“We’ve got some difficult decisions to make,” Dr. Denning said. “Things will be quite difficult if we don’t get enough growth money (from the state Better Education Program), he said.

On Monday, Gov. Phil Bredesen announced his own budget revisions, including cutting a proposed $86.5 million in new BEP funding. The state plan still calls for annual BEP increases based on growth.

Cleveland’s BEP growth money is expected to be about $400,000, Mr. Denning said. Half of that will go to mandated pay increases for teachers, he said.

And the city is under pressure to use the remaining $200,000 to hire nine teachers. But a new teacher actually costs about $40,000.

“Multiply that by nine and, well, you do the math,” Dr. Denning said.

The board discussed other budget alarms, too. Dr. Denning said the schools have been paying $8,000 to $10,000 for a month’s fuel supply.

Last month the bill was $24,000. Along with rising gas prices, now is the time for school field trips, he said.