Baltimore schools laying off staff

BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore school system issued layoff notices to more than 700 employees in the days before Thanksgiving and warned that more jobs would be cut in the coming months as the district attempts to stave off bankruptcy.

A group of city activists went to court Wednesday to halt the layoffs, saying the job losses threaten to erode the level of education guaranteed by the state constitution.

The layoffs were announced Tuesday to address a $52 million deficit that has grown over several years of overspending. Officials said the school system could go bankrupt if it does not reduce the payroll by $24 million by the end of the year.

"I think people were pretty much not controlled in the amount of spending that was taking place," said Jeff Grotsky, the school system's chief of staff.

The job losses include more than one-third of the administrative staff, or about 298 jobs, at the central office. There also were 329 layoffs of temporary workers, 13 assistant principals and 55 teachers whose professional certificates had lapsed.

Last year, the district laid off 396 temporary workers and furloughed the schools' 12,000 employees, from two to four days in most cases, in an effort to balance a budget of nearly $900 million.