Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year, hours after saving nearly 2,000 jobs belonging to elementary school teachers.

    The nation's second largest school system faces a $596 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year.

    The final number of layoffs remains to be determined because the exact amount of state and federal funds coming to the district remains unclear. However, 1,996 elementary school teachers were spared from the cuts thanks to federal stimulus funds.

    "I have recommended that the majority of the stimulus money be used to save jobs, but it is not enough to save all the jobs," said district Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

    Cortines said he held meetings with all the district's unions over the past two weeks in a last-ditch effort to gain concessions that would reduce the number of layoffs, including furloughs, salary reductions, and freezes on raises, but no headway was made.

    A.J. Duffy, president of teachers' union United Teachers Los Angeles, said he does not support furloughs and salary reductions because "there is still plenty of fat in the LAUSD budget that should be cut, including millions spent on outside consultants."

    "District spending is out of control," he said.

    During a lengthy public hearing before the vote, teachers, parents and others told the board that the number of layoffs would severely affect education.

    Jackie Goldberg, a former board president, said she voted for layoffs two decades ago, a decision that she now considers a mistake.

    "I will regret to the day I die the choices I made 20 years ago," she said. "We cut the best music program in America. It never came back."

    The district may also be able to save some jobs because of an early retirement program it is urging. So far, 600 employees have applied for early retirement.

    Many teachers who received layoff notices told the board that the inner-city schools are getting disproportionately hit because a majority of their staffs are new hires. State law mandates school districts make job reductions according to seniority.

    Araceli Castro, a fifth-grade teacher at Hoover Elementary, said she returned to teach in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood near where she grew up so she could serve as a role model to students. Now she's slated to be laid off.

    "I tell my students I was once in your seat," she said, her voice cracking. "I have achieved my dreams and you can, too. I feel betrayed by this decision."

    Cortines said he has received thousands of e-mails in the past few weeks pleading for alternatives to teacher layoffs.

    "It has caught up with us more than other districts because we have not been stewardlike in adding more positions with declining enrollment," he said. "We are facing challenging times."

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