AUBURN – After hearing Mayor John Jenkins say the city’s spending cap is a cap and not a goal, the Auburn School Committee on Monday identified $561,338 to cut from school spending.

The latest plan would not close the East Auburn Community School, eliminate sports at Edward Little High School or lay off assistant principals. Those were the kinds of cuts the committee asked the public to respond to last month, and what critics called “scare tactics.”

What was cut Monday were 5.5 teaching positions and a guidance secretary, positions mostly being vacated by people retiring. The exception is a high school gym teacher. Because no gym teacher is retiring, that would mean one teacher will lose their job.

Also cut was about $120,000 in miscellaneous areas ranging from carpentry and waste removal to maintenance, supplies, bus driver overtime, technology and $18,000 for L-A Arts.

School committee members considered, but quickly rejected, laying off any of the four assistant principals at Edward Little, which has a student population of about 1,050. Committee members flirted with an idea of cutting two of the four, but instead opted to cut teaching positions that were being vacated.

That means Edward Little will lose a science teacher, a math teacher and elementary schools will lose a half-time reading specialist, a full-time reading specialist, and a new special education teacher the department planned to hire.

In administration, $72,014 was cut in the Office of Learning and Teaching, which deals with teacher training and certification; shaving $22,432 in consultant fees to the superintendent next year; and not hiring several crossing guards, $10,562.

The agreed-to cuts total $561,338, meaning the budget shows a 3.3 percent increase in spending. Because Auburn is getting about $1.2 million more from the state, the half-million-dollar cut will reduce the demand on local property taxes for education by 1.18 percent, said committee Chairman David Das.

However, taxes are expected to rise, in large part because of a re-valuation of homes later this year. Higher home values will push tax bills up.

When asked why the kind of school budget cuts were not proposed a month ago when the public was asked to comment on proposals of closing the East Auburn school and eliminating sports, Superintendent Barbara Eretzian said the right information was not available then.

Now that it’s clearer which teachers are retiring and what classes are in demand this fall at the high school, it’s easier to identify the kind of cuts agreed to Monday, she said.

The cuts will bring harm to Auburn schools and “will have a major impact. It looks too easy.”

Das agreed. Eliminating the teaching positions means “these jobs aren’t coming back,” he said. Auburn schools are losing flexibility to respond to future needs by students.

The cuts will be workable next year, Das said, but he asked what happens the year after if student demand for math and science increase? “We are reducing the capacity of the system.”

School committee members debated whether the council wanted spending capped to a 3.3 percent or 3.2 percent growth. They agreed the council asked for a 3.3 spending cap, but will seek clarification.

The school board is expected to vote on the school budget again Wednesday night, then send it back to the council.