Simi Valley Unified School District, which has already shed $187,577 from this year's budget, notified 16 classified employees this week they will be fired.

The 16 employees—including 11 custodians, four clerical workers and one information technology staff member—were given 45-day notices that their jobs have been terminated.

And more cuts may be on the way soon.

"I think this is just the start. I think we're going to be hit with more," warned Lowell Schultze, associate superintendent of business and services. "We need to start today—we can't wait to 2010 to make reductions."

The district estimates it will need to slash at least $4.9 million from its budget over the next three years to stay above water.

On Monday, the same day Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency in the state, the SVUSD board, staff, union representatives and budget committee met to discuss where further district cuts needed to be made.

By the time it was over, the board had authorized almost $350,000 in midyear cuts, including the 16 jobs purged this week.

The proposed cuts now go to the Ventura County Office of Education for final review. The district is required by law to certify its budget with the VCOE three times a year, showing exactly where, if necessary, it could make cuts.

Financial news from the state remains bleak. California's deficit is expected to soar to $28 billion in the middle of 2010. If squabbling in Sacramento prevents the passage of a legitimate budget, the state could run out of money in February or March— which means districts around the state, including Simi Valley Unified, will be left high and dry.

Although board member Debbie Sandland pleaded during Monday's meeting that the district should not cut kindergarten through third grade classroom size reduction standards, her colleagues kept it on the list. In the budget committee's three-year proposal, axing K-3 classroom size reduction would save the district a total of $2.8 million in 2009-10 and in 2010-11, and would likely result in bigger classes and fewer teachers at the elementary school sites.

Simi Valley Unified has until February to decide whether or not to actually follow through with this cut, Schultze said.

The only proposed cut the board didn't approve was for delaying step and column salary structure increases for certificated teachers in 2010 and 2011, a temporary savings of $3 million.

In the worstcase scenario under the proposal submitted on Monday, the district identified $14.6 million in cuts between now and the end of 2010-11. However, Schultze reminded the public that things can change at any time.

"It's a constantly evolving list," Schultze said. "This is an ongoing process. We're not done by a long shot."

Since teachers all have a minimum of oneyear contracts, teaching positions won't be reduced until the next school year at the earliest, Schultze said.