A financial advisory task force recently made cost-saving recommendations to the Hoover School System, including creating more part-time positions and decreasing the number of school days.

The task force is made up of 38 Hoover citizens, including current parents, former students, people with no children in the school system, future parents, business leaders and teachers.

Cathy Antee, chief financial officer for Hoover City Schools, said in an e-mail the task force is intended to help the system come up with ideas to bolster financial stability.

“Hoover City Schools, along with all school districts across the state and country, are managing through difficult economic times,” Antee said. “Hoover City Schools believes that it is important to engage the community in looking for ways to protect the quality of education while making often challenging decisions.”

The suggestions included reducing the number of school days from 188 to 187; creating more part-time positions; examining the preschool program for possible cost-saving methods; alternating semesters of art and music classes in the elementary schools; increasing student-teacher load; better utilizing existing technology; and additional fundraising.

Antee said the school system is gathering the suggestions and learning more about which ones might be used.

“The task force brought forth many great suggestions and ideas. We had six different groups that focused on specific areas of expenditures,” Antee said. “We are in the process of reviewing all of the suggestions, determining how they might fit together, whether there are any legal restrictions or limitations to the suggestions and considering the time and cost to implement.”

Antee said the next meeting of the task force would focus on suggestions about how to bring in revenues.