The Milwaukee Metropolitan School District plans to eliminate over 600 jobs in the next year, according to Superintendent William G. Andrekopoulos’ 2011 budget proposal released Thursday.

The proposed cuts are the result of growing financial concerns that have plagued the district for years, and they will include the elimination of approximately 260 teaching jobs.

“[2011] is the year the dire predictions about finances become realities affecting teachers, students and families,” Andrekopoulos wrote in his budget overview.

While the jobs being eliminated include currently unoccupied and soon-to-be vacated positions, the number of layoffs will be substantial, district spokesperson Roseann St. Aubin said. The exact number of cuts and where they will be made has yet to be determined, as the district’s school board must review the budget proposal and make changes as it sees fit.

“We’re still juggling a few things here, and we don’t know yet where we’ll end up,” St. Aubin said. “[Andrekopoulos] thinks when it’s all said and done, it’s still going to be in the triple digits.”

St. Aubin added the cuts are largely a response to the district’s worsening financial situation, the product of a bad economy, shrinking enrollment, and the high cost of employee benefits. Andrekopoulos’ proposal said the district’s inability to control fringe benefit costs was one of the biggest factors contributing to its budget shortfall.

St. Aubin said approximately 74 percent of employee salaries are paid in benefits. She added employees also have a large number of retirees to provide for, further adding to the costs.

Representatives for the district’s employees argue that many other factors contributed to the district’s budget deficit.

“I think it’s shortsighted to point a finger at one aspect of what goes into funding education,” Christina Brey, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, said. “Teacher salaries and benefits are part of a collective bargaining process, so there’s give and take on both sides. I don’t think it’s accurate to frame this as a result of teacher demands.”

Milwaukee’s schools are faced with a number of problems similar to those in other large districts, St. Aubin said.

The district has encountered difficulties raising achievement levels and dealing with high poverty rates and socio-economic concerns. In addition, the decreasing size of the district has forced the administration to close many schools, while still having to provide benefits to retirees despite generating similarly shrinking revenue.

“We’ve been very systematically, over the last 30 years, closing schools and trying to ‘right-size’ the district,” St. Aubin said. “In the past five years we’ve actually closed more than 20 schools.”

Brey points to a broken state funding system as another factor hampering the district. Revenue caps are in place, which severely limit the district’s ability to keep up with the costs of education.

The Milwaukee School Board must now debate the proposed budget. Their deadline to make changes to Andrekopoulos’ plan is June 1.