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The number of employees of Saskatoon’s public school division affected by a $11.5 million budget shortfallis growing.

The school division has eliminated 10 educational assistant positions in community schools and 11.9 full-time-equivalent secretary support positions — affecting 18 employees — in order to save between $450,000 and $600,000.

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Nine library technicians and the equivalent of 1.5 full-time clerks are also affected. The division recently announced it would dissolve its curriculum materials centre and technical services department for a savings of $515,000.

School board chair Ray Morrison said such decisions are never easy.

“We’ve tried very hard, as we always have, to try and protect the classroom,” he said, calling 2017 a “very difficult budget year” as the education sector saw a reduction of 6.7 per cent year-over-year.

Employees affected by the changes have received layoff notices, but Morrison said they were distributed in order to allow staff to examine other opportunities in the division, such as bidding on a new job, bumping someone with less seniority, accepting a different EA position, joining a substitute list or accepting the layoff.