[KHTS] – The Sulphur Springs School District’s Governing Board again approved district-wide layoffs in a unanimous vote during its meeting on Tuesday night.

The move comes in an effort to lower the district’s deficit from $3.1 million to $1.6 million.

The newest stream of layoffs will decrease the number of librarians in the district from nine to five, with four seeing their official 60-day notices in the next few weeks, according to Mari Nikogosyan, a labor relations representative with the California School Employees Association.

“Over the last year, we’ve looked at the entire district,” said board member, Shelly Weinstein. “Last year we laid off teachers. None of us take any of these cuts lightly.”

Receptionist and instructional assistant positions throughout the district will also see cuts.

According to board president, Kerry Clegg, one school in the district will have a permanent librarian and the rest will be split among the eight remaining schools.

Parents,teachers, and several librarians attended the meeting, with many speaking out against the layoffs.

“We were told last Thursday, before they had a chance to vote,” said Kara Bowden, one of the librarians affected by the cuts. “They didn’t tell us they were going to vote, they just told us that we were laid off.”

The positions will be discontinued on Jan. 28, 2016, according to Tuesday’s agenda.

Board member Lori MacDonald said that librarians were “essential,” but the governing board was put in a tough situation, and “none of this is taken lightly.”

One of the librarians who will stay on the district payroll, Carol Enriquez, said that because of her fellow librarians being cut, those that remained would be unable to give enough attention to the students in the district.

“We’re not going to be able to get all the kids in thirty minutes a week,” she said. “It’s impossible. There’s 35 kids (in all of the classes). It’s not going to happen.”

Clegg blamed the situation partially on the effects of the 2008 recession, which left fewer families having children to be enrolled in the district.

“They would tell us we would have a 50 student loss,” he said, “and we would lose 100.”

Clegg also said that without drastic steps taken now, representatives from Sacramento would come and begin cutting at any and all non-essential jobs including school bus services.

“The state does not require transportation in any district,” he said. “As far as the state is concerned, it is the parent’s responsibility to get their kids to school. If the state were to come in, they could say ‘you don’t need transportation for your kids.’”

Clegg claimed that districts can receive up to two “qualified” reports from Los Angeles County about their annual budget and projections for the next two years. After the second, the a state run agency comes in and takes over the district budget.

“That is what we are trying to avoid,” Clegg said. “The parent’s wouldn’t have any say and the board wouldn’t have any say in the budget.”

“It gets a little more complicated than just saying ‘we’re cutting our librarians,” said Clegg.