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Along with possible school closures and larger class sizes, the Tucson Unified School District's projected deficit of $20 million also means nearly 300 teaching and support positions might be eliminated in the coming school year.

Officials at Tucson's largest school district hope they won't have to lay off that many people and plan to lose many of the positions naturally through attrition, retirement and the loss of temporary workers.

While district officials wouldn't comment on actual layoff numbers, the president of the district's teachers union said he's been told at least 100 people will be laid off.

In addition to the district's budget shortfall, TUSD is facing the loss of about $1.7 million in federal funds, prompted by new restrictions on Medicaid reimbursement in public schools. About 34 teaching positions were paid for by those funds.

The 282 positions amount to 7.8 percent of TUSD's 3,600 teachers and instructional coaches.

Exact job-loss figures should be known by next week in order to be approved during the April 8 Governing Board meeting.

"The school district is doing everything it can to avoid lay-offs," Governing Board President Alex Rodriguez said.

"We're going to have too many teachers and not enough positions," said Alyson Nielson, director of employment services for TUSD's human resources department.

TUSD officials hope to offset the loss of jobs by moving teachers into spots currently held by temporary employees, retirees working for the district and employees scheduled to retire soon, Nielson said.

The teachers union — the Tucson Education Association — and TUSD officials estimate there hasn't been a work-force reduction since the 1980s.

"We don't believe middle schools and high schools will be affected at this time," Nielson said.

District officials are looking to make cuts from their pool of probationary teachers — who have less than three years' experience — at elementary schools.

While the prospect of a reduction in work force has been discussed publicly since the beginning of the year, rumors spread this past weekend among TUSD employees after a principals meeting last week in which human-resources staff members noted possible cuts.

The leader of TUSD's teachers union says layoffs might have been averted if district officials were more financially prudent.

"This sad event could have been avoided if the district had not hired so many elementary teachers for a class-size-reduction program that, while highly desirable, did not have adequate secure funding," said Steve Courter, president of the teachers union. "Now these fine, dedicated teachers are facing upheaval in their lives."

Rodriguez said Courter has a valid point.

"This community has yearned for smaller class sizes as long as I've been on the board," he said. "The district made a valiant effort to fund the small-class-size initiative without additional, external funds."

Another key factor to possible layoffs, Rodriguez said, was TUSD's losing its 2004 override initiative. More than half of voters that year turned down overrides that would have paid for new teachers, counselors, librarians, desks, classroom equipment and musical instruments.

It's too soon to estimate the potential savings from the layoffs, TUSD Chief Executive Officer Beatriz Rendon said.

National and local research shows smaller class sizes improve student education, but from the beginning there were problems with TUSD's small-class-size initiative. When the program expanded, the Governing Board said the 18-to-1 student-teacher ratio would be implemented for kindergarten classes in schools where space was available and 41 specific first-grade classrooms.

But TUSD officials said implementing smaller kindergarten classes where space was available wasn't practical given public demand, so the initiative became districtwide. At many schools where space was a problem, students were placed in libraries and computer labs, and some rooms housed two classes.

Facing a loss of nearly $3 million in federal funds for the small-class-size initiative, the Governing Board voted Feb. 12 to raise kindergarten and first grade class sizes to a 24:1 ratio.