In addition to the teacher layoffs, the district proposes other cuts: $6 million in contracts, $2 million in school site funds, $2 million by eliminating the positions of 10 high-level administrators, and negotiating the remaining $6 million with its three other unions that represent non-teaching workers such as instructional assistants, as well as supervisors and administrators.

The district needs to make the cuts to balance its budget in the wake of ballooning deficits that the district has been grappling with since June.

“It is important for the community to know that the central office will sacrifice enormously in order to help balance our budget,” Duffy said, explaining that these reductions are being made “to keep cuts away from the classrooms.”

However, classrooms are also expected to be deeply affected, said Gonzalez-Hoy. He and officials from the district’s other unions are trying to hammer out one-year agreements with the district for cuts, in the hopes that they could be reinstated the following year.

Expressing shock and dismay, teachers’ union leaders said they did not agree with anything the district laid out in its initial proposal, which included the elimination of stipends for teachers who attend special education and other extra meetings, and a school-wide class-size average of 28, with an average of 34 in grades 7-8, 39 in secondary core classes and 55 in physical education and some performing arts courses. The district also proposed increasing counselor loads to 700 students to eliminate about 16 counselor positions and eliminating stipends for special credentials and degrees, as well as for leading departments or training.

“The class sizes they were proposing were egregious,” Gonzalez-Hoy said. “We haven’t had them that high in over 16 years.”

To emphasize the union’s priorities and concerns, its site rep council — which includes representatives from each of the district’s 55 schools — adopted a resolution that blamed the budget problem on “gross fiscal mismanagement” of funds that it predicted would disproportionately affect students of color, English learners and special education students and teachers, “consequently intensifying structural racism on historically targeted communities and exacerbating social justice, the opportunity gap and racial wealth gap.”

Tony Wold, the district’s associate superintendent for business services, said he is optimistic that the district will be able to come up with cuts collaboratively with the unions. He also said no special education services will be cut.

“These cuts will hurt,” he said. “But we need to make them. We need to move forward.”