PROVIDENCE — The Providence School Department stands to lose $18.3 million under Governor Carcieri’s proposed deficit-reduction plan, but Supt. Tom Brady said yesterday that he wouldn’t cut teachers or increase class size.

“It’s dire,” Brady said. “But there are ways to manage through it and have minimal impact on our students.”

He said he wouldn’t have a handle on the impact on Providence schools until he meets with Mayor David N. Cicilline this afternoon.

The good news, he said, is that Carcieri is also proposing to eliminate some costly mandates, such as school bus monitors, which cost Providence $4 million a year. However, by the time the General Assembly acts on the deficit-reduction plan, the actual savings to the city would be considerably less.

In a televised speech Wednesday, Carcieri said he wants to withhold $60 million in school aid to help avert a $357.4-million deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Under his proposal, Providence would have to slash 9.5 percent from its existing $193.8-million school budget, a daunting challenge since an estimated 75 percent of the budget will be spent by spring, when the General Assembly is expected to take up the plan.

Meanwhile, about half of the $18 million is in dispute. Last year, the state Department of Education conducted an audit of the city’s expenditures on school construction projects and concluded that the city over-billed the state by $9.4 million. The city has contested the claim.

— Linda Borg