The Jordan school district will ask for the help of 30 residents as part of its cost-cutting committee. Applications for the committee, which will begin meeting later this year, are due by Feb. 8.

The committee will likely look at a list of possible cuts considered by the district and rank them in the order of how they feel the district should cut, Superintendent Larry Kauzlarich said. And while the board has yet to decide to make any budget cuts or how much those cuts might entail, he thinks it won’t be easy.

During the district’s last round of budget cuts, Kauzlarich said he didn’t think the past cuts hurt the overall quality of education offered by the district. The upcoming round of cuts could hurt, and they are essentially going to affect programs and class sizes.

The board will likely ask the public to pass a referendum this year, Kauzlarich said. They also have to decide if they want to list the cuts as possibilities should the referendum fail or if they want to make the cuts in preparation for the referendum.

The public sent a strong message to the board when the last referendum failed, Board Member Tammy Will said. They told the board that a referendum wouldn’t pass until the district was bleeding.