Joe Sears’ up-and-down career as a singer in a funk rock band prepared him for the public schools’ new era of uncertainty.

Sears, who chased dreams of stardom with the band Sinister Dane, begins work Wednesday as a fifth-grade teacher at Prairie Park School.

Ginny Wessels, left, a resource teacher at Wakarusa Valley School, and Patti Hayden, a counselor at Broken Arrow School and Wakarusa Valley School, discuss teaching strategies at a morning meeting at district headquarters. New faculty met Thursday for a one-day orientation session.

Until this year, there would have been no reason for Sears to worry about job security as a new Lawrence teacher. That was before layoffs sliced 65 teachers from the payroll.

“That weighed heavily on my mind,” he said. “But I’m excited.”

He enters the teaching ranks on the heels of the Lawrence school board’s decision to pink-slip 65 teachers after the 2001-2002 school year. Hundreds of other teachers across the state most of them young, untenured educators lost their jobs.

Sears and 80 other newcomers to the district assembled Thursday at district headquarters for a daylong orientation program. There was talk of sexual harassment, technology, health mandates, math and science curriculum and contract terms.

It didn’t take much prodding to change the topic to job security.

“It’s always an issue with music,” said Erin Stewart, 24.

She’s the new choral music teacher at Central Junior High School. The district cut three music staff members, and the job at Central was vacant only because a teacher took a job elsewhere.

“I was lucky,” Stewart said.

Karen Musacchio, who will teach photography at West Junior High School, knows her stint there could be short.

“I was told, ‘You have a job for a year. After that, we don’t know.’ I said, ‘Thank you for the year.'”

Mary Rodriguez, the district’s director of personnel, said 30 of 65 teachers hit with layoffs were rehired. Some accepted different positions, while others took part-time jobs.

The district’s implementation of $3 million in budget reductions and fee increases also trimmed the non-teacher payroll by 60 people. Fifteen have been hired back, Rodriguez said.

She said there was more anxiety among new hires than in past years.

“It’s a mix of people excited about having a job yet knowing the reality is that job security certainly is something to be considered.”

Rodriguez said it wasn’t unreasonable to expect another round of staffing adjustments after the 2002-2003 school year.

“We don’t know what the budget is going to be,” she said.