March 15 is the deadline for California school districts to issue preliminary layoff notices to employees.
"I received a layoff notice over the weekend and that was hard," sighed Michael Beckner, a counselor at Florin High School.
For almost 30 years he's worked in the Elk Grove Unified School District. Now he's among 1,100 people in the district getting layoff notices.
"I'm not so worried about myself. I'm concerned about the kids," said Beckner.
He see students with a variety of issues. "We have kids that are dealing with gang issues in their communities and are afraid. We have kids that are dealing with drug and alcohol issues, pregnancy, and suicide," Beckner said. "We have a lot of kids whose parents are losing their jobs. It stresses the kids out and affects their school work."
Beckner wondered why counselors are being laid off. He pointed out counselors also make sure students are taking the right classes and get college scholarships.
"It's frustrating," said district spokeswoman Liz Graswich. "Over the last two years our district has dealt with $40 million in budget cuts. Now we're looking at cutting $60.5 million."
According to Graswich, things will be significantly different come next fall. "Class sizes in K-3 will increase," she said. "We're going to 28 students to one teacher. We're also cutting counselors, librarians, and library technicians. The list is terrible."
