It often seems that in the world of public schools in the past many workers believed that they were in some way exempt from the general turmoil of the general job market. After all jobs in education usually came hand-in-hand with all of the protections of civil service workers, along with a few other beneficial additions. Teachers and other workers in the public schools traditionally enjoyed the protection of strong unions, and teachers were often given the manifold benefits of tenure in their employment contracts. It can be a little surprise that job in public education were generally touted as stable careers for many generations past.

During the current long-term economic downturn however that situation has changed radically. More and more school districts all in order to make ends meet, have had to make some serious staffing cuts. Many districts around the nation are facing millions of dollars of budgetary shortfalls, and they are trying to cut back on their staff, even the teaching staff, in order to set things right again. While during previous short falls the schools might have fixed the problem with a quick cash infusion from the state, or sometimes even the federal, governments that is likely not going to be the case for many schools this year. Increasingly cities, counties, and even the federal government are showing a serious decrease in the amount of tax revenue collected. This gives them less to spread around, and little to nothing to give to the school districts who don’t want to make cuts.

This is exactly the case for the workers in the Chino Valley Unified School District, in Chino Valley Arizona. Last Friday members of the school district board approved 119 layoffs in a special meaning. These layoffs are set to affect 15 probationary teachers, 44 regular teachers, two teachers at the adult school, and 58 teachers who were given a designation of temporary when they were hired this year. All of these teachers will be let go to the 2012, 2013 school year, which is upcoming.

On the bright side for the soon-to-be displaced workers they have had plenty of time to write the resumes, start submitting them and perhaps even go on a few job interviews. The workers were officially given the layoff notices on 15 March. At that time however the layoff notices were considered to be tentative. Is only now that the final vote has passed, that they are going to be complete. However it’s not crazy to decided to job search. If your employer gives you a layoff notice, you might want to start looking for new job.

After all these cuts the school district is still about $2 million in the hole for the coming year’s budget. The school district is still looking to the workers to fill up the hole. This time they’re asking the remaining workers take $2 million in cuts to pay and benefits in order to make things work.

The current round of job cuts was passed in a vote of three in favor, one against. One member of the school board did not attend the meeting or vote on this issue.