Michele Miller hopes her shoes can foot the bill to keep libraries open in her school district.

With the help of parents and staff members, the principal of Jackson Elementary in El Dorado Hills is offering up for sale 285 pairs of her own shoes, hoping they will help close a budget gap she says is estimated at a minimum of $1.4 million.

"It was a lot of doom and gloom," Miller said, of a Rescue Union school board meeting March 8, when the budget reality hit.

It may mean cutting 17 teachers, three vice principals, bus drivers, health staffers and library technicians in the seven-school district.

The final budget won't be known for months.

Miller said she couldn't bear to think of well-stocked school libraries shut for lack of staff.

Instead, she decided to give up 15 years of footwear.

"One entire bedroom is solely (yes, "solely") dedicated to my shoes," Miller said.

She downsized from house to apartment a few years back, and right-sized her shoes from a walk-in closet to a room of their own.

The variety is boggling: high-tops, cowboy boots, rain boots, sandals, strappy things and lots and lots of platforms and high heels.

"I like being a little bit taller than I am," Miller said.

You won't find anything in a conservative, classic pump in taupe or black.

"I probably don't fit the principal mold," she said.

That is fairly clear from the large number of leopard print shoes (including rain boots), but the school mascot, the jaguar, excuses that.

Her creative solution to a budget problem entails stepping her mules outside her comfort zone, because she's never before opened up her life on the Internet.

Volunteers are photographing the shoes and loading the images and videos onto www.shoestotherescue.com while Miller writes up the stories behind the buckles, sequins and laces.

One bright-blue pair, for example, was for a concert by a band she declines to name.

The shoes are, for the most part, nothing expensive.

"They're not Jimmy Choos or Prada or Gucci or something like that," she said.

Nevertheless, she's asking top dollar: A grand per pair.

That's for gently used shoes. (When you have that many, they don't get worn often.)

The concept is that it's a donation for schools, more than a pair of footwear, even if some offerings are unusual - like the taxi-colored heels and matching Checker Cab bag.

If you don't want $1,000 shoes, any donation is welcome.

Don't worry about her going unshod. Her full collection was 350 pairs.

She's holding back things that might have been too worn and some flip-flops decorated with Tinkerbell, with fish, with skulls, with sequins and with leopard prints. She'll be keeping her Christmas tree full of shoe ornaments, too.

The shoes for sale are mostly in the 7 to 7 1/2 range, but she owns up to squeezing her toes if something's irresistible and only in a 6 1/2.

Whatever is earned is worth losing her shoes, she said.

"It's better than sitting back and not doing anything," Miller said.

To paraphrase the ancient saying: "I cried because I had no shoes, but then I met a child who had no school library."

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.

• Read more articles by Carlos Alcalá