The 29 positions are a combination of cutting back hours of certain staff, including a nurse and a drama instructor, and eliminating other positions altogether, such as a resource specialist and two fifth-grade teachers.

In addition, the district will give out notices to all administrators informing them of possible salary and benefit changes or reassignments. Superintendent Mary Gardner also said the district will not fill an open administrative position at Redwood Middle School.

"We're doing this with great reluctance," said Cindy Ruby, district board clerk, on March 11. "But legally, this is the action we have to take."

School districts across the state needed to give notices to certificated staff by March 15, telling them that they could possibly lose their jobs for the coming school year. Final layoff notices must be sent by May 15.

"You have the option to lay off less or not at all. You just have to take this procedural step to preserve that right," said John Yeh, legal counsel for the district.

What preceded the layoff notice was the board's decision, made several weeks ago, to increase its K­3 class size from 20 students per one teacher to 25:1, and keep grades 4­8 at a ratio of 30:1. The class size increase was in response to the state's proposal of taking between 5.7 percent and 12.6 percent of the $5,243 per student that the district anticipates it will receive in 2003-04.

A handful of school staff members were in the somber and quiet audience that gathered to hear the board approve the resolution "to decrease the number of certificated employees due to a reduction in particular kinds of service."

Schools will lose 13.5 K­3 full-time equivalents and almost 10 teaching positions for grades four to eight.

Some positions, however, will not be eliminated, since they are funded by the Saratoga Education Foundation. At the March 11 meeting, foundation Co-President Madeline Morrow notified the board of the foundation's decision to continue paying for a counselor and librarian at Redwood; physical education and music teachers, a library aide and a computer lab technician at the elementary schools; and computer support staff at the district office.

But Morrow did say that the foundation is unsure if it will continue paying for a visual arts instructor at the elementary schools, because the foundation is planning to reallocate its funds to cover the costs of much-needed faculty that the district will not be able to fund.

Morrow also said later that one library aide at Redwood and two professional development instructors have been eliminated, and the elementary school library aide will have reduced hours, from 30 to 15 per week. "Our parent survey showed that people were agreeable to filling in for the aide as volunteers," Morrow said.

The foundation is hoping to have the funding to pick up at least three full-time equivalent positions that will be reduced by the district. "But that has to be worked out, how we do that," Morrow said. The majority of the foundation's budget comes from its annual phone-a-thon, which was held last month, and the Redwood Jogathon, scheduled for March 21.

Besides the foundation, the district is examining other funding sources.

John Waite, president of the board, said the district is in preliminary discussions for some kind of parcel tax, possibly for the November ballot. But with the current requirement for a two-thirds supermajority, "the general feeling is that it's a long shot," Waite said. Waite pointed out that Assemblyman Joe Simitian has proposed a bill to lower a parcel tax passing rate to 50 percent but said it is still very tentative.

Waite plans to meet with Los Gatos­Saratoga Union High School District Board President Phil Nielsen to explore some kind of financial partnership. Waite added that he has heard "rumblings" of the city of Saratoga establishing one citywide parcel tax and then distributing the funds to its various school districts.

"We have not had any discussions as a board, as a district, on the parcel tax," Waite said. "We understand that it's one of our options. But it wouldn't happen in time to solve the short-term issues."

One short-term solution could be partnering with other local school districts to share services and to lobby legislative representatives. "We're starting to realize that the collaboration with other districts might be valuable," Waite said. "Everybody's looking at each other's strategies and helping out."