The pencil sharpeners are getting a workout at the Anacortes School District offices.

After being forced to find $500,000 in cuts in their initial budgeting, lower than expected enrollment has district leaders looking at another $450,000 in cuts.

We say cuts deliberately, not trims.

Pulling about $1 million out of our schools is a big deal. Sure the budget is $28.5 million, but the schools have already upped fees and reduced staffing — and they’re looking for other funding sources.

Superintendent Chris Borgen calls the situation “manageable” and aims to keep the cuts as far away from students and the classrooms as possible. Good luck. Compounding the problem are the rising costs of fuel and food that everyone is facing — and the extra maintenance money being siphoned away from learning and instruction as the district tries to keep patched together facilities that would have benefited immensely from the major school bond that voters sank twice.

On the bright side, administrators are on top of the problem and they have plans.

They’re not making knee-jerk reactions but rather doing what they need to do and thinking several years down the road. They’re not pointing fingers, though they could be excused for a sour look south to Olympia.

Compare that if you will to the response to the financial disaster unfolding in Washington, D.C., where so many politicians are bumbling and stumbling down partisan dead ends, and the administration has been unable in a timely way to lay out the issues and the need for action that average folks can understand.

If there’s one thing school leaders must do as they grapple with slumping enrollment, it’s keep communicating with us. We need to understand the challenges and problems and be part of the solution.

We’re confident that will happen and the long-term interests of our students and the community will continue to be served by a school district that manages problems well before they become crises.