Westport Community Schools will likely eliminate one grade school class and one Pre-K section by the end of the month — victims, the superintendent said, of tough budgetary times.

Superintendent Thomas Aubin said Monday that he spoke to teachers' union representatives Friday and predicted that the department will likely move ahead with the reduction of the Pre-K class and one additional class in grades 1, 2 and 3, bringing the total number of class sections in that grade range from six to five.

"We are still to this day looking at how to make cuts that will keep personnel," he said. "It's very difficult."

The cuts come following the May 7 Town Meeting, at which Westport Community Schools were approved a budget that Aubin said doesn't cover all expenses. Though voters approved $405,000 in additional appropriations to the schools for the coming year, that funding is contingent on a budget override that must be approved by voters at a special meeting likely to be held in July or August.

Though that appropriation will certainly help if approved, school committee member Antonio Viveiros said at Town Meeting that it is a drop in the bucket and would go to "salaries, programming, technology, you name it."

"We certainly could use more than $405,000," Viveiros said.

Aubin added that rising costs have "completely decimated" the district's finances in recent years, using out of district transportation as an example. Costs per year have risen from $170,000 in 2021 to $275,000 in 2022 to $440,000 this year, he said.