NATCHEZ &045; By the end of today 45 Natchez-Adams School District employees will have received notification that their job contracts are not being renewed.

Of the 45, 22 are teachers who were notified in mid-March. The 23 remaining employees are support staff and teacher assistants. Some of both have already planned retirement or resignation.

School districts across the state must notify employees by 5 p.m. today if they will not be rehired. Teachers work on a year-to-year contract.

Eliminating 45 positions is the last thing Superintendent Anthony Morris said the district wanted to do.

&uot;If we had the money that we needed then what we would be doing is hiring teachers to reduce the pupil teacher ratio,&uot; Morris said. &uot;We have a goal of having classes as small as we can, but that’s a luxury the state is saying we can no longer afford.&uot;

The sum of the 22 teacher salaries is just over $1 million, not including the support staff.

When the state legislature ended their regular session last week without approving a budget, they left school districts in the dark about what money would be available to them.

&uot;It could be different if we had a budget from the state,&uot; Personnel Director Beverly Raines said. &uot;The state has provided us with projections for the best and worst case scenario. We’ve prepared for the worst case.&uot;

Raines said if higher than expected funding does come out of the upcoming special session, employees could be rehired. &uot;What we’ve projected is what we know the state has to fund based on our enrollment,&uot; Raines said.

Morris said though he’s always hopeful the funding will come through, he has to be realistic.

&uot;When they go home without a budget it deflates you,&uot; he said. &uot;We don’t really know what to expect at this point. We know that we are going to have to educate children.&uot;

The teachers who did not receive contract renewals were chosen based on certification levels and evaluations done by administrators, Morris said.

Raines said every school lost someone and Morris guessed that the hardest hit school was Morgantown Elementary.

This is the second year in a row school districts have faced &uot;pink slip day,&uot; without an education budget from the state.

Last year, the Natchez-Adams district did not renew the contracts of 49 employees, 19 full-time certified teachers, 19 part-time certified teachers and 11 support staffers.

Morris said the state funding cuts of last year combined with the reduction in local ad valorem taxes set in motion a cycle of cuts that continued this year.

&uot;We are in some critical times right now,&uot; he said. &uot;I’m afraid we are going to lose 20 years of progress if we do not change this course we are on right now.&uot;