URBANA – The Urbana school board Tuesday night approved issuing reduction in force, or layoff, notices to 66 employees.

While the task of informing employees of layoffs is never pleasant, the good news is that the district is issuing fewer than half the number of reduction in force notices it issued last year, when it cut $2 million from its budget for the current school year.

The 66 employees include 6.75 teacher positions, including some part-time teachers, those whose salaries are paid with grants, and those who were hired to cover for teachers on medical leave, said Gayle Jeffries, assistant superintendent for human resources.

The reduction in force includes 59.25 non-certified positions. They include teaching assistants and family coordinators at the Washington Early Childhood school; teaching assistants hired for elementary classrooms that had enrollments slightly larger than the limit under the district's teacher contract; and teaching assistants for special education and English as a Second Language students. Most of the positions are grant-funded, Jeffries said.

Finally, the layoffs include 26 non-certified positions in the Urbana Adult Education program.

Last year, the district laid off 139 employees, including 33 teachers, 48 support staff, and 38 employees, both teachers and support staff, from Adult Education.

"This year, we're trying to hold the line," Jeffries said. "We're operating on bare bones. We're trying to maintain what we have."

She said the district is hoping to hire back many of the teaching assistants once it learns whether the grant money that pays their salaries will again be available.

School districts must notify by the end of March any employees it intends to lay off for the next school year. Many employees are hired back when the district learns it will receive the grants, or when it has a better idea of staffing requirements for the next school year.