Signs are placed on chairs outside the LAUSD District Headquarters in Los Angeles on Monday, March 15, 2010. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)

Dramatizing the impact of looming layoffs, teachers placed nearly 3,000 empty chairs over an entire city block in front of L.A. Unified headquarters Monday, each seat representing a classroom instructor, nurse or counselor facing job cuts.

The elaborate scene was set up to mark the legal deadline for all teachers and school support staff to receive preliminary notification if there job is at risk for the following school year. Statewide some 22,000 pink slips were mailed out to educators by Monday, including nearly 2,300 teachers, and 600 nurses, counselors and librarians at Los Angeles Unified School District. “After 6 years of being dedicated to my job, 180 days a year, rain or shine, with paper and supplies or not, they are going to tell me I cannot teach... why?” asked Trinidad Hernandez, a fifth-grade teacher at Sunny Brae Avenue Elementary School, who received her pink slip notice late last week.

“They gave me a job and I have done magic with it... it’s just not right.” Like school districts in Oakland, Burbank, and Long Beach, Los Angeles Unified officials said the budget crisis has left them with no choice but to increase class sizes and eliminate workers to keep local schools financially solvent. Currently, LAUSD is facing a budget gap of some $640 million for the 2010-11 school year. With fewer teachers, class sizes are expected to rise.

For example, kindergarten through third-grade classes will grow to 29 students

and middle school classes will grow to 44 students. Cuts also call for the virtual elimination of school nurses and librarians, deep cuts to arts education programs and counselors could be left overseeing up to 1,000