Punctuated with tears, frustration and comic relief, public comment centered on the district's personnel decisions. But faced with a May 15 legal deadline to send layoff notices, the board approved the reduction of 15.17 full-time equivalent positions. The layoffs—of 18 full- and part-time provisional and probationary employees—had previously been affirmed by an administrative law judge, and the district had laid off temporary employees with a March notice.

At the May 13 board meeting, speakers urged board members to consider alternatives to layoffs.

Claudia Fortson, administrative assistant at Argonaut Elementary School, asked the district to continue "trying to come up with a creative way to save jobs while still giving students and parents and the community the services they deserve."

While Fortson said the district's classified association is concerned with keeping current salaries and health benefits, even more important is keeping the jobs themselves.

"If this school district had more money—a lot more money—a lot of these problems wouldn't be here," said Redwood Middle School teacher Josh Marks. For there to be more money in the district, Marks said, the burden should be put on all Saratoga residents—in the form of a parcel tax.

"Where are the citizens of Saratoga? What are you doing?" Marks said, urging parent volunteers to channel their energies into political change. "I just feel like there's an apathy of people who aren't parents in the community."

Marks also commented on proposed salary decreases and increased benefits costs for all district employees, which would lead to a less attractive school district, lower quality teachers and, ultimately, less desirability for people to live in the community.

"Part of my frustration is, we're still not hearing definitive answers from the district," said one parent and teacher. "We're asking for communication and I'm asking for clarification."

"You know what? I'm still waiting for answers," responded board member Cindy Ruby. Ruby said that legislators in Sacramento were not giving school districts concrete financial data for the districts to plan their budgets. "This isn't simple, and we don't have any simple answers," Ruby said.

According to officials, the 2003­04 budget shortfalls stem not only from Gov. Gray Davis' proposed cuts in education but also from declining enrollment in the district's four schools next year. Ellen Tipton, chief business official, said the district stands to lose $780,000 from the governor's proposals—a combination of losses of $120 per student in basic aid funding, categorical money for class-size reductions and increases in retirement costs.

Although Superintendent Mary Gardner said the governor's decision last week not to take away schools' excess local property taxes was "good news," that does not affect the district's budget plans. The board had previously voted to increase class sizes from 20:1 to 25:1 for grades K-3 and from 28:1 to 30:1 for the upper grades, since the district expects to lose the funding for the class size reduction program.

To maintain the 25:1 and 30:1 class sizes, the district will have to spend $700,000 of its reserves. To go back to the smaller class sizes will cost the district $1.25 million, which will only happen if "the community as a whole can raise enough money to bring it back," Gardner said.

Some in the audience asked the board to dip even further into reserves, either to pay for teachers' salaries or to reduce class sizes.

"We would have nothing if we didn't have the teachers," board president John Waite agreed. Waite said, however, "We are hitting the reserves extremely heavily. Some people may say we're not acting responsibly."

Gardner said the district is required to maintain 3 percent of its operating budget as reserves. If spending went into the 3 percent, it would be a signal to the state that the district was going bankrupt and could result in a state takeover of the schools.

"I cannot, in good faith, tell the board not to lay off any teachers and put us all in jeopardy," Gardner said.