At least 55 educators in the Lawrence public schools will receive pink slips, district officials said Wednesday.

Twenty-five nontenured teachers, counselors and other certified staff at elementary schools are on the list with 30 employees at the junior high schools and high schools.

Previously published lists indicated layoffs would take out 20 to 30 staff.

“The board was forced to make some adult decisions that it didn’t want to make,” said Scott Morgan of the Lawrence school board.

The board came up with $4.7 million in spending cuts and fee increases for the 2002-2003 budget in anticipation the Kansas Legislature would reduce appropriations to public school districts. The state’s revenue shortfall tops $700 million.

If the state were to raise appropriations to districts or if federal funding for class-size reduction programs is maintained, Morgan said some of the 55 could be rehired.

“Hopefully, we can get a lot or most of them back,” he said.

On the other hand, the number of pink-slipped Lawrence educators could increase if the state makes dramatic cuts in education spending.

The district’s “reduction in force” decisions are determined guided by the last-hired, first-fired model, said Mary Rodriguez, the district’s executive director of human resources.

Rodriguez said that meant untenured educators it generally takes three years in the district to gain tenure absorb these layoffs.

“Tenured staff have property rights over nontenured staff,” Rodriguez said.

She said about 35 certified employees have retired or resigned. More are expected to do so by the May 15 deadline for tenured educators to make their intentions known to the district.

Normally, 10 percent of the district’s 1,000 certified staff retire or resign annually.

If vacancies occur, individuals given pink slips will be free to apply for job opening. Rehiring won’t be based on seniority, she said.