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Last Updated: Wednesday, Mar 5 2008 7:34 PM

The Rosedale Union School District Wednesday voted to notify 20 teachers that they may not have a job next year.

The plan, approved 4-to-0 with one board member absent, was less destructive than an alternative that would have cut 34 jobs.

A $4.4 billion potential statewide cut in education funding next year means the 5,300-student district must cut 7 percent, or $2.1 million, from its budget.

“The board has done a nice job of listening to the recommendations” of the district employees, Superintendent Jamie Henderson said.

The district called for money-saving suggestions and about 230 came in, ranging from altering school day schedules to cutting travel.

The one with the biggest impact on the bottom line is a plan to take over the district’s daycare from North of the River Recreation and Park District, a plan the district approved.

Revenue from the new venture is expected to reach $430,000, enough to take the 3rd grade class size reduction program off the chopping block.

But it’s looking like kindergarten class sizes will still have to increase from 20 students per class to possibly 30.

And that has one parent considering pulling one of her children, who will be entering kindergarten next year, from the district.

Jillayne Lowe is a 3rd grade teacher in the Richland School District and can enroll her children there.

With all of the standards that kindergartners are expected to meet these days, 30 students in a kindergarten class is a lot, Lowe said to applause from the approximately 150 in attendance.

Cuts will likely reach only first-year teachers, Henderson said. Positions that are slated for elimination include the early literacy position and a music instructor. Eleven positions will be lost with the kindergarten class size reduction and seven more will be eliminated elsewhere. A part-time school nurse was cut at the end of February, he said.

Other likely cuts include summer school and there will be some changes to 8th grade graduation. Fees for after school sports will increase as the district stops paying for some of the cost. And about $175,000 in cuts to other staff with a later notification deadline are still to come.

But some teachers feel the district could have saved a little more.

“If schools are going to have to do more with less, then the district should have to do more with less,” said Nancy Williams, a life skills teacher at Rosedale Middle School and former president of the Rosedale Teacher’s Association.

One idea proposed, but not approved, was to eliminate district-funded board member insurance, she said.

But the district will continue to look for cost savings, Henderson said. Talk in Sacramento is that the statewide budget crisis that recently ballooned to $16 billion may go even higher, he said.