The Amherst elementary school budget has been reduced by $305,696 because administrators now anticipate no increase in state aid next year.

But there is still a shortfall of $218,200 that the School Committee hopes to make up with money from its decision to allow parents who live in other towns to send their children to Amherst schools.

The elementary schools will lose the equivalent of just over two positions, Crocker Farm Principal Michael Morris told the committee Tuesday. A resource teacher and two half-time positions in intervention and English Language Learners program are due to be eliminated, he said. The Spanish program will not expand to another grade, as had been planned, he said.

Last month, the School Committee voted to admit children who do not live in Amherst next fall, but not to increase the number of teachers. The school district's website is now accepting applications from parents.

On Tuesday, the committee heard from five parents of first-graders at Crocker Farm who are concerned over the size of their children's classes. They said they are worried that bringing in children who live outside Amherst will create more large classes in the lower elementary grades.

Parent Dennis Goeckel of Harkness Road cited a study showing that larger class sizes in the early grades had a negative effect on children's ability to learn. Another parent, Samah Jafari of Heatherstone Road, said that big classes can cause behavior problems and hurt teacher morale. There are 22 children in the Crocker Farm first grade class.

The other elementary schools have some lower grades with large class sizes this year. The second and third grades at Wildwood School average 23 students, and the second grade at Crocker Farm School averages 22.5.

There could be as many as 61 students from outside Amherst next fall, said Kathryn Mazur, the director of human resources. There are currently 1,169 students in the three elementary schools.

Mazur estimated that there could be 16 "choice" slots in second grade, five in third grade, 27 in fifth grade and 13 in sixth grade, with children chosen by lottery if there are more applications than slots. The projections call for five "choice" students at Crocker Farm, 38 at Fort River and 26 at Wildwood.

These projections would add a classroom for second grade at Fort River next year, reducing the average class size to about 18 students. Goeckel said after the discussion that "that's what we're looking for."

But Fort River Principal Monica Colley said that the school would have to reconfigure space to accommodate an extra classroom. And Wildwood Principal Nick Yaffe said that with 447 students, the school is already short of space.

Administrators have been using 22 as the target size for kindergarten through second grade and 23 as the maximum. The School Committee may vote next month to revise these numbers, said Chairman Irvin Rhodes.