TEN jobs are to go at Cowes High School amid falling student numbers and a reduction in available funds.
David Snashall, headteacher, said he hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies through voluntary redundancy, part-time working, potential sharing of staff with middle schools and natural wastage.
He said the cuts were necessary to set a balanced budget.
Mr Snashall emphasised the need for staffing levels to match student numbers and said declining rolls had brought about the loss of seven posts.
"Fewer students equals fewer staff," he said.
And Mr Snashall, who is leaving at the end of this term to work in education consultancy, said the other three posts concerned additional staff who were originally taken on with additional resources accumulated by the school.
He said school reorganisation had also impacted on their budget.
At the point of setting last year’s budget, Mr Snashall said they understood the school would close in summer 2010 and had been warned by County Hall that any money left over would be lost.
"We decided to retain those three extra staff for another year, using up our surplus funds for the benefit of our existing pupils," he said.
However, in October, the school, which was recently judged a good school with outstanding features by Ofsted, found out its closure date had been pushed back to 2011.
"If we knew we were closing in 2011 when we set this year’s budget we would have held back a buffer as we have done in previous years," said Mr Snashall.
He added class sizes were unaffected by the staff reductions.
Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk