ADAMS TWP — About 20 Mars School District teachers, plus several parents and students, crowded into the school board meeting room Tuesday night over concerns about potential program cuts to make up the $2.5 million deficit in a draft of the 2012-13 district budget.

Sophomore Kaitlin Rymer told board members she heard the French program at the high school may be cut or phased out. She decried such a move, saying it would hurt students.

“Learning that we might not be able to keep French in the high school is very upsetting,” she said.

Superintendent William Pettigrew asked where she heard the information, and the student replied her French teacher told her class.

Pettigrew then told the crowd he had shared proposed budget cuts with teachers during contract negotiations to keep them informed, but that no cuts would be recommended to the board by the administration until the May 1 school board meeting.

Pettigrew said the budget deficit is the result of expenditures that are out of the district’s control, including a $382,000 increase over this year in health care costs, and a $655,000 increase in state-required teacher retirement payments.

Pettigrew said school officials are working to balance the budget without raising taxes, all while negotiating a new contract with the district’s 200 teachers. Given those factors, Pettigrew said it will be difficult to maintain all programs as they are.

“That can’t happen,” Pettigrew said. “There’s nothing anyone can do about it because there’s only so much money in the piggy bank, just like your homes.”

Pettigrew said neither he nor the board would take questions from the teachers at the meeting regarding potential cuts because the two sides are in contract negotiations.

Board President Dayle Ferguson appealed for patience and to avoid responding to rumors, partial information and half-truths.

“I can assure you we are all working really, really hard to retain our programs,” Ferguson said.

Mark Lewandowski, a high school teacher serving as a negotiator in the bargaining sessions, thanked Pettigrew for his honesty during negotiations regarding potential cuts.

Lewandowski acknowledged that teachers attended the meeting over concerns about those cuts.

“Of course we’re concerned because of the impact on students and educators,” Lewandowski said.

He told the board the teachers understand the unavoidable financial difficulties faced by the board in creating a budget.

Lewandowski said contract negotiations have been cordial and communication between the two sides has been effective.

“We hope that through the communications set up, we can keep on talking to get a fair, working contract,” he said.

The teacher contract expires June 30. The school board voted in March to appoint a state fact finder, who will listen to both sides’ arguments and produce a report.

If approved by teachers and the school board, the report would become the basis for a new contract.

Mars has a $37.1 million budget with a 99-mill property tax rate. The school board voted in December not to raise taxes above the state-imposed 1.7 percent index.

The district was able to pass a budget last year due in part to a one-year pay freeze accepted by district administrators, teachers, cafeteria workers and the solicitor.