Candidates for Lawrence school board stepped to the microphone Tuesday to explain how each would trim wasteful spending in the district.

For at least one aspiring board member attending the campaign forum at Quail Run School, 1130 Inverness Drive, the cutting would be a pleasure.

Candidate Brent Garner told about 100 people in the audience that the district’s administrative staff had to be sliced.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there is … featherbedding at the headquarters,” he said. “Those are fighting words, and I’ll admit that.”

Other candidates said that kind of talk was irresponsible.

“There is some sort of blissful thought out there that we’ve not looked at administrative costs,” incumbent Mary Loveland said.

Candidates Scott Morgan, Cindy Yulich, Sue Morgan and Gordon Longabach joined Loveland in endorsing elementary school consolidation as a way to save money. The district estimates closure of East Heights, Centennial and Riverside schools would save $1.4 million annually.

Candidate Cille King called into question the accuracy of projected savings. She speculated the real savings was no more than $200,000.

Candidate Samuel Gould said the board was concentrating on cutting budgets when it should be looking for new revenue sources.

He outlined a plan where a local business he declined to name would allow customers to round purchases off to the nearest dollar and donate that money, $2 million to $4 million, to the district, he said.

“There’s a lot we can do. Our board currently doesn’t know how,” Gould said.

Other candidates’ ideas:

• Ron Powell — Adopt a quarter-cent sales tax for schools.
• Michael Pomes — Raise money from private donors.
• Leonard Ortiz — Possibly increase class sizes.
• Rich Minder — Recruit students from private and home-school settings.

Candidate Eddie Lehman didn’t attend the forum.