Crunching numbers and cutting plans. Those are some measures the Hazelwood School District (HSD) will have to take while realizing a $2.9 million operating deficit for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

"That is different for us," said Dwight Lindhorst, assistant superintendent for finance and facilities. "Last year we started out with an operating deficit of 1.5 million, but that is the first year since I’ve been in the district that we’ve started out not having a balanced budget."

Lindhorst said the deficit isn't a surprise.

"As I’ve been saying over the past few years, we knew starting this (2011-12 fiscal year) we would have a funding cliff with state funding and also with drops in assessed valuation," he said. "So we knew this was coming and had been planning for it."