Completely virtual 7th period classes. Teacher furloughs. Layoffs of hundreds of school employees. Four-day school weeks. Fewer school buses.

Those are just a few of the options school districts across the state are mulling to close budget gaps that range from $6 million to $144 million. The budget holes are blamed in part on falling property tax revenue, the disappearance of federal stimulus dollars and proposed reductions in state funding for schools of nearly 7 percent per student.

Florida lawmakers want to cut funding to K-12 schools statewide by about $1 billion, one of the largest cuts in recent memory. Though school districts won’t know their final numbers until the governor and Legislature agree on a budget, districts across the state are beginning to craft budgets based on legislative estimates.

For districts, these budget cuts come on top of five years of strict belt-tightening. Already districts have closed schools, eliminated thousands of jobs and in some cases, charged for popular after-school programs like sports.

“We’ve had economic downturns in the past, but they lasted a year, maybe two. They didn’t have such a negative impact that we’re seeing now because schools had reserves and were able to buffer themselves against a state budget cut,” said Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow.

While most districts have avoided any cuts that impact classrooms so far, such as laying off large numbers of teachers, Pudlow said next budget year schools are examining teacher layoffs and furloughs.

Republican lawmakers in charge of the state education budgets defend these cuts as the product of a tough economic climate and the consequence of losing $1.2 billion in federal stimulus dollars.

“We’ve had to make some tough choices on the state level,” said Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, who is in charge of the House budget committee on education. “I completely understand that the local school board members along with the superintendents will make equally tough choices, but that will be up to them.”

The size of each district’s budget hole varies widely. Some districts chose to levy local tax increases, others didn’t. Some districts used all or most of their federal stimulus dollars, others socked it away.

Sen. David Simmons, R-Maitland, argued that schools can’t blame the state for their budget problems. He takes into consideration unused federal stimulus dollars and savings from pension reform into his budget calculations.

“Based on the fact that most of the school districts kept their (stimulus dollars), in general there is an almost even funding from last year,” said Simmons, the head of the Senate’s education budget committee.

Still, school boards are preparing for worst-case scenarios. The populous Miami-Dade County Schools are bracing for a $144 million budget cut, on top of $400 million trimmed from the district’s budget in the last four years.

The district has turned to its maintenance and construction departments to close the gap, with a proposal to cut maintenance worker salaries by 20 percent and lay off hundreds of district employees.

In Leon County, where Tallahassee is located, the school board is pondering turning its high school seventh-period classes all virtual. This would save the school district $1 million out of a possible $10 million cut.

District spokesman Chris Petley said seventh period is optional and only about 10 percent of students take classes that period anyway.

In Southwest Florida, the Lee County schools may have to cut the budget by more than $30 million, on top of cuts of $86 million over the last four years. Spokesman Joe Donzelli said the district has already cut 700 positions over the last three years. For next year, the school board may choose to eliminate more than 50 “support staff” jobs.

“Our philosophy has been we don’t want to start meddling with the classroom,” said Donzelli. “But there’s no guarantee we won’t lay off teachers. That is sacrosanct – the last place the board wants to go.”