Sixty-two East Valley certified staff, including teachers, will receive letters this week notifying them that they may not have a job in September.

The board of directors passed a resolution Tuesday night that outlined steep cuts from the 270 teachers currently on staff. “This is the absolute worst-case scenario,” said Superintendent John Glenewinkel. “Undoubtedly we will call a lot of these folks back.”

The eliminated jobs include 18 full-time equivalent special education positions, four kindergarten teachers and two music teachers. Five elementary school teachers hired for class size reduction will lose their jobs. The DECA business program and highly capable programs would be eliminated. Two FTE counseling positions would be gone as well as 1.5 FTE librarian positions.

Other cuts identified in the resolution include reducing the hours for food service, reducing custodial services, cutting extra- and co-curricular programs and eliminating the school resource officer. Other losses include five positions in the central office, the dean of students position at East Valley Middle School and one vice principal position at East Valley High School.

Glenewinkel said there are still some unknowns when it comes to the money the district will receive from the state. “The governor still has line-item veto on the budget,” he said.

The proposed cuts do not impact the district’s classified staff heavily because those areas have already been trimmed, he said. “We are running such an incredibly bare bones classified operation that I did not see a way to make cuts,” he said.

The cut to the custodial staff will likely be felt by the public. “Frankly, it may mean closing gyms for community use,” Glenewinkel said.

Though Glenewinkel had previously said the district was looking at a $1.8 million to $2.3 million budget shortfall, the proposed teaching staff cuts alone total about $4.6 million. Even though 62 certified staff members are getting layoff notices, Glenewinkel said he thinks at least 41 of those jobs can be restored. “We will be hiring special-education teachers back,” he said.

The reason so many are getting notice is because the district must give out layoff notices based on seniority, but call backs can consider both seniority and job classification. “To get the numbers we actually need, we have to give notice to 62 people,” he said. “Going up that far gets us to the point where we cover our 21 who are not funded.”

“It is very disheartening,” said board member June Sine. “We’re probably going to be losing some great teachers.”

“It’s not like we’ve gone out and overspent,” said board member Roger Trainor. “It’s the state that’s done it.”

Teachers union President Con Mealy said after the meeting that he knew layoff notices were coming, but did not know the number. He expected the district to pick a high number to get the notices and then backfill the positions. “They’ll pick and choose backwards to fill the spots,” he said. “The most senior who is qualified will get the first chance at the available job. The least senior may be the only one qualified.”

Mealy said he wasn’t panicking yet. “Most of these will be un-eliminated as they find out how much money they have.”

Glenewinkel told the board Tuesday that he had given the union a proposal last week on a plan to avoid layoffs and was waiting for a response. “That plan needs to be evaluated” by the union, he said.

Mealy said he and others met with the superintendent, but that no official written proposal was made. “It was a verbal suggestion,” he said. “He really didn’t propose.”

Neither Glenewinkel nor Mealy would give details on what was discussed.

Glenewinkel also told the board that he had asked the union to waive the contractual May 15 deadline for final layoff notices, a statement that appeared to catch Mealy by surprise. “I don’t recall that ever coming up,” Mealy said. The two had discussed a bill that was before the legislature that would have waived the May 15 deadline for every school district in the state, Mealy said, but the district never specifically asked the union to consider waiving the deadline. The bill did not pass the legislature.

The district plans to hold public meetings on the budget cuts, but has not set dates. The next board meeting is scheduled for May 12.