Budget cuts force school employee layoffs in Trenton Sunday, May 14, 2006 • Associated Press Fifty percent of Trenton's school employees will receive pink slips in the coming days as school officials try to trim $24 million out of their $294.2 million spending plan, Superintendent James Lytle said. The layoffs for the 2006-07 school year will affect about 1,250 employees in the district and would drastically reduce the number of teachers available to the district's estimated 13,000 students, Lytle said. "We estimate that 50 percent of our employees are nontenured, and all of those employees will get layoff notices," he said during a school board meeting Friday, the Times of Trenton reported. Lytle said nontenured positions in the district include assistant superintendents, principals, vice principals, teachers, coordinators, food service workers and security guards. He said some tenured employees might also get a pink slip in the mail or get demoted. Lytle said the cuts are a product of a state Supreme Court decision that the state did not have to increase aid to Abbott districts, the poorest in New Jersey. "Salaries make up 80 percent of the $24 million we have to cut," Lytle said, adding that he hopes to be able to offer contracts to laid-off employees once the budget is balanced. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.