After hours of passionate testimony, trustees for San Jose’s East Side Union High School District decided late Tuesday to layoff teachers and staff as well as charge students $200 a year to play after-school sports to balance a $23 million deficit.

In all, 129 classroom teachers will get layoff notices, starting Wednesday, to cover the 80 full-time teaching slots that ESUHSD needs to shed. Some teachers may be rehired later this spring if older teachers retire, but many may be out of a job for the 2009-2010 school year.

Another 116 full time classified positions, which includes attendance clerks, computer technicians and custodians, will be eliminated.

Dozens of students, teachers, parents and community leaders lined up to speak before the board, which held its meeting at the Independence High School gym. Many expressed outrage that California has slipped so far in preparing young people for the future.

“We have a state that pretends to fund education, and a district that pretends to offer quality programs,” said John Blair, a teacher at Evergreen Valley High School. “We have overcrowded classrooms and no libraries.”

Superintendent Bob Nuñez admitted that the deep cuts will have an enormous impact on schools and students.

“Certain things just won’t get done anymore because we won’t have the staff,” he said.

For years, each of the district’s 11 high schools has had a computer technician who was on call to help teachers and students troubleshoot computer problems. But under the plan approved Tuesday night, 8 of 14 computer techs will be cut – meaning that one tech will now be responsible for hundreds of computers at two different campuses.

“This is one of the saddest days in the East Side’s history,” said Omar Gutierrez, a computer technician in the district office, who is worried he may get laid off. “We have over 9,000 computers in this district. Who’s going to fix the printer when it’s not working? In the long run, cutting staff will cost the district more money.”

Most of the pain won’t be felt until the 2009-2010 school year, when the layoffs and new fees go into effect. And many wild cards – including how much money ESUHSD will get from the federal stimulus package – remain up in the air.

School board President Patricia Martinez-Roach voted against the layoffs of teachers and classified staff, saying deeper cuts should be made in the administrative ranks. Trustees J. Manuel Herrera, Frank Biehl, Lan Nguyen and Eddie Garcia voted for it, saying they had little choice but to balance the budget.

“I feel the pain in people’s faces,” said trustee Eddie Garcia. “But we have a $23 million hole to close. The easy way out is to vote no, so you can all stand up and cheer. The tough vote is to vote yes.”

By 11 p.m., dozens of parents and students remained at the gymnasium to discuss the future of swimming, water polo and the athletics program overall.

Trustees have now adopted a plan that essentially makes athletics completely self-funded and dependent on the passion of 6,300 student athletes.

In addition to a $200 annual “pay-to-play” fee to play sports, students must also raise at least $500,000 on their own by selling discount cards, coupon books, sports memorabilia and tickets to the San Jose Earthquakes soccer and Oakland Raiders football games.

Given the national recession, several speakers questioned whether students could meet the fundraising goal. Several students said they could not afford the $200 fee. Trustees were quick to characterize the $200 charge as a “voluntary” donation, but it’s unclear if a student who can’t afford to pay could be banned from participating in sports.

“My family is low-income, and $200 is too much money. I’m worried because I want to go to college, and I need to participate in sports so I have a strong application,” said Tuyet Dang, a junior who plays badminton at Oak Grove High School.

Nuñez estimates the $200 annual fee would raise $1.26 million each year from the district’s 6,300 student-athletes.

“You are really rolling the dice,” said Davain Martinez, a cross-country runner at Piedmont Hills High. “If you set the fee, it will narrow the number of kids who actually play; $200 is a lot to pay.”

With more than 26,000 students and 11 high schools, the sprawling East Side district is one of the largest high school districts in California. And like districts throughout the state, East Side must slice huge chunks from its budget because of the state’s fiscal crisis.

Nuñez created statewide headlines in December when he warned that the district might have to eliminate high school sports completely. That dramatic scenario was later revised: Sports like soccer and football would be spared, he said, but the district would close high school pools and eliminate after-school aquatics.

That plan so infuriated the families of swimmers and water polo players, however, that Nuñez is now calling for pools to be open for only part of the year, to save an estimated $1.3 million in heating and maintenance costs.

Contact Dana Hull at dhull@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2706.