The district will have also eliminated 5¹/2 classified positions, as well as reducing the work time of three classified administrators.

The need for staffing reduction comes from a $1.6 million budget shortfall that the district faces, having received significantly less than its previously anticipated $2 million in local property taxes for this school year. Los Gatos and Saratoga high schools are cutting back programs, reducing costs and laying off teachers in an effort to eliminate that deficit.

In an April 28 decision, administrative law judge Mary-Margaret Anderson wrote that the district board of trustees' action to eliminate 12.64 full-time equivalent positions was "neither arbitrary nor capricious."

"Notice may be given to respondents in 12.64 full-time equivalent positions that their services will not be required for the 2003­04 school year because of the reduction or discontinuation of particular kinds of services," Anderson wrote.

Anderson decided, however, that three of the teachers who had received initial layoff notices on March 15 will be kept on next year. The district has rescinded notices for Saratoga High English teachers Kelly Brown and Bill Peck and Chinese teacher Mariam Fan.

The three were among seven teachers who filed a request to appeal the layoff decision. While Anderson decided in favor of Brown, Peck and Fan, she sided with the district in the case of the four other instructors.

Superintendent Cindy Ranii had previously said that there was an "over-notification" of employees on March 15, due in part to the possibility of a successful appeal. The district had sent out 33 notices at the time, anticipating that there would be appeals, resignations and retirements.

On May 6, the board of trustees voted to reduce classified administrative services and reduce certain classified services—including the elimination of an entire school clerk position. Although the vote was unanimous for both acts, board members said they were doing so with "great sadness" and "great reluctance."

The board as well as the district and school administration, however, received words of praise from a resident who said the district had acted humanely and with consideration for those being laid off.