NATCHEZ — In response to more than $600,000 in budget cuts from the state, the Natchez-Adams School District has made some cuts of its own.

And now the district, like districts all across the state, is pinching pennies where it can.

District business manager Margaret Parson said the district has cut its own budget by 3.23 percent to compensate for the state cuts.

The newest budget cut applies to every school and each of the district’s departments.

But Parson said the newest cuts won’t compensate all the funding lost from the state because the district’s cuts don’t impact salaries.

Parson said salaries, which account for 85 percent of the district’s budget, aren’t scheduled to be cut.

And while salaries are safe, not much else is.

District Superintendent Anthony Morris said all district employees are looking for areas to save and are coping with the current cuts.

As of now, there are no plans for lay-offs, Morris said.

“But we have to tighten up,” he said.

That means that only essential expenditures will be made. The district won’t update any equipment if it doesn’t have to, Morris said.

“If it’s something that can be delayed, we’ll do that,” he said. “We’ll have to.”

And while the district has not declared an official hiring freeze, vacant positions in the district won’t automatically be re-filled, Morris said.

Vacancies will be re-filled on a case-by-case basis, Morris said.

Natchez High School Principal James Loftin said the 3 percent cut equals approximately $5,000 from the school’s budget.

“Right now it’s being taken well,” Loftin said. “We’re doing OK.”

Loftin said the school is cutting travel expenses to compensate for the loss.

Luckily, Loftin said, most of the student travel for the year has already been done and students won’t be missing out on any trips.

Across town at the district’s maintenance facility, the cuts are already being felt.

Pam Mackel, the district’s Building and Grounds Maintenance Department’s secretary, said that a 3 percent cut equaled a $16,000 chunk missing from the department’s budget.

“Some projects aren’t going to get finished,” Mackel said. “We’ll just have to make do.”

Mackel said at the beginning of the school year, every school was scheduled to have new blinds installed in their cafeterias.

Mackel said at least one school that already had some blinds put in won’t be getting the rest of the blinds.

The rest of the schools won’t be getting any.

At Central Alternative School, a new $30,000 lighting overhaul previously budgeted for is now indefinitely on hold, Mackel said.

“It just makes us think before we spend any money,” she said.

And Parson said the budget cuts could force the district to start spending from its savings account.

“I won’t say we won’t have to,” Parson said. “I’m always hoping we won’t have to.”