Parents, teachers and students walked to the microphone one by one Monday evening in an organized attempt to persuade the Auburn School District Board of Directors to preserve their favorite programs from budget cuts.

Jamie Goetz, a fifth-grade honors student, described all that the Student Teacher Enrichment Program (STEP) at Terminal Park Elementary for gifted and talented fourth and fifth grade students did for her.

“I had the best music experience of my life,” said Goetz. “It opened many doors to new opportunities.”

But staring down a projected $5.3 million shortfall in this year’s school district budget and similar shortfalls over the next three-to-four years owing to $1.3 billion in state cuts in funding for education, Superintendent Kip Herren said that the district would cut programs and eliminate the jobs of 49 full- and part-time teachers.

Those work force reductions, which include all first- and second-year teachers, exclude only special education, English Language Learning (ELL) and culinary arts certifications. The total saving to the district will be $3.9 million.

The entire district, Herren said, is mourning.

“We think the whole district is in a state of grieving related to the potential loss of jobs and colleagues, which are not budgets and numbers and dollars, we’re talking people,” Herren said.

Yet the work force reductions represent only the first phase of the district’s attempt to balance the budget. In the second phase, the district will address the remaining $1.4 million shortfall with cuts to various programs.

District staff will talk with personnel in athletics and activities, transportation, library services, professional development, health, counseling, attendance, maintenance and operations, central office and building administration and bring specific reduction recommendations to the school board at the May 11 meeting.

“We have not had a chance to work with our staff in the buildings, we have not had a chance to sit down with the various bargaining groups that represent some of the programs,” Herren said. “That needs to happen to get the best ideas. Anything above the $1.4 million in program reductions and modifications that can be made can then be used to bring back the teachers. It would be our goal to bring them all back if we can. I am guardedly optimistic that if we all work together, we can figure out in various programs how to bring the teachers back.”

Herren said the school district is required to pay unemployment for the teachers in the district amounting to almost $22,000 per teacher for nine months of unemployment.

Because the school district is required by law to let teachers know by May 15 if they have a job for the following school year, teachers were told the next day.

This is the first layoff since the double levy failure in 1970s when the district laid off 120 teachers, 40 percent of the teaching staff.

“It’s a painful thing for everybody,” said Dave Trout, a math teacher at Cascade Middle School. “We’re losing some quality people. It’s too bad that it’s just based on numbers. It’s hard to equate numbers with what quality people can do in a building for kids. It’s a double shock because these young teachers just getting started, and something like this happens.”

“This is a tough process,” said school board president Janice Nelson. “This is our community. We understand the impact. Our top consideration is what is in the students’ best interest.”