It was standing room only at the Board of Education meeting Monday night as about 100 teacher aides and other staff attended to show their opposition to proposed budget cuts.

The proposed 2009-10 school budget, which carries a 1.9 percent increase, calls for aides to be cut from full-time to part-time and some cuts in positions. The cuts do not affect special education aides.

The cut saves $200,000 not including benefits, but school officials said the issue is bigger than budget savings.

Lois Infanger, Millburn Education Association president, said teacher aides give specialized support and crucial assistance to teachers.

"They help create a better, far more focused learning environment," she said. "We need them. Our children count on them."

Kindergarten aides are a second set of hands, she said. Library aides assist students and teachers when the librarians are teaching, she said.

The aides—who are "pillars of the community"—will be forced to look elsewhere for employment, Infanger said. There are better options for savings in the budget, she said, and school officials need to pursue them to their fullest.

Schools Supt. Richard Brodow said the teacher aides are dedicated, talented individuals and wishes state officials saw their positive value. The new state accountability regulations are requiring the cuts in teacher aides, he said.

"We are working hard to retain as many as we can, but I don't want to create false hope," he said. "Please believe me when I say it's with a painful heart we do this."

Noreen Brunini, school board vice president, said the state regulations mean that aides could only be retained for larger classes. That includes kindergarten classes with at least 23 students and older classes with 26 or more students, she said.

"At first we thought we needed to cut them all," she said.

After speaking with county officials, thought, it was determined there was some discretion, she said, and the superintendent made the proposal that was accepted in the proposed budget.

"Clearly this is not because we don't value (the aides)," she said. "It's just part of the new reality in New Jersey."

Other school districts, including in surrounding communities, have already made the cuts to teacher aides, Brunini said.

Robert Zeglarski, assistant superintendent for business, said county school officials put some pressure on district officials to make the cuts and comply with the new regulations.

"I have no doubt that the county superintendent would not look favorably on us if we didn't look at this and make preparations to comply," he said.

When regulations are put into place, he said, there is increased pressure each year to comply until they become standard operating procedure.

The regulations also include new standards for the number of custodians and janitors, how many bus runs can complete and the amount of overtime pay for custodians, Zeglarski said.