Sixty-four campuses will lose extra funds designed to offset costs at small schools because the state Department of Education has lowered the enrollment levels needed to qualify for the money.

Schools stand to lose from $17,000 to $300,000 in the upcoming school year, but officials said budget losses will be smaller because the estimated $16.9 million saved through redefining small schools will be returned to the per-pupil funding pot for distribution to all campuses. The per-pupil funding or weighted student formula assigns "weights" to children based on their needs, so that schools with higher enrollments of disadvantaged, special-education or other special-needs students will get more of the money.

Still, principals say any budget decrease hits hard at a time when programs have already weathered several years of reductions.

The change comes as principals are bracing for an across-the-board cut of per-pupil funding in the coming school year. That decrease, which averages a 1 percent cut per school, is part of a plan aimed at meeting a $32.4 million budget reduction over the biennium (fiscal years 2011 and 2012).

Many schools are still finalizing budgets for the next school year, so principals at small schools were not sure how much of a hit they would take by the weighted student formula change.

Education officials acknowledged the funding declines will be tough, but say they are needed to be fair to all students.

In the coming school year, about $5 million will be divvied up among 50 small schools through the enrollment adjustment. If the change didn’t occur, about $22 million would go to 114 of the state’s 286 schools.

"The change to the formula will have an impact on smaller schools," said Brian Hallett, department budget specialist, who added that it was designed to distribute funds more equitably. The Committee on Weights, which decides how money should be allocated to schools, "wanted more resources to be distributed based on student characteristics and less so on school characteristics."

The extra funds for small schools under the weighted student formula were designed to help them stay in the black since some of their expenses are high even if their enrollments aren’t.

"It was an attempt to offset" those costs, said Bob Campbell, department executive assistant for school reform and a former member of the Committee on Weights.

For the coming school year, elementary schools with 300 or fewer students enrolled will be considered small, down from 500 last year. At middle schools the enrollment level will drop to 450 or fewer students from 600, and at high schools, 750 or fewer students from 1,000.

At those levels, Pearl City Highlands, with 411 students, will no longer be deemed a small school. The department estimated the elementary school’s funding will decline by about $35,000 because of the change.

"That’s a warm body," said Principal Mike Nakasato, who added that he was still working through his budget and had not yet decided where cuts will have to be made.

The school gets about $1.4 million through the weighted student formula annually.

Nakasato said the declines will likely have him asking "parents to be digging deeper" at fundraisers.

Last school year the campus got about $20,000 in contributions, and Nakasato is hoping to top that this year by showing parents how much the school is doing, despite the tough times.

"It’s just making do with what we have," he said. "What I do is just showcase all the great things that we do, (and tell them) everything you do goes back to the kids."