Seattle Teachers, Students To Protest Layoffs SEATTLE, WA (KPLU) - It's been a couple of weeks since the district laid off 165 Seattle teachers to deal with a big budget deficit. But anger and disappointment persist. Ballard High School science teacher Noam Gundle plans on showing up tonight.

Noam Gundle: We did not need to have these layoffs. It's the last possible thing we should have had happen.

Gundle says to save teacher jobs, the district should, for example, tap some of it's rainy day reserves, and delay implementing new high school math standards.

Gundle: Not adopting a math textbook is not going to hurt the kids as much as taking a vibrant and vital teacher out of the classroom.

When she announced the layoffs, Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson said they were necessary to plug a 34 million dollar deficit. Other cost-cutting measures include some closed schools and merged programs, as well dozens of jobs cut at district central administration.

Expected to join the demonstration tonight are frustrated students. Mike Gore is a Ballard senior, and student body vice-president.

Mike Gore: These are the teachers who are young and passionate, and they just got educated, and it's really sad to see a lot of the energy being taken from the school.

Gore says he'd like to see changes to the teacher's contract with the district that dictates layoffs by seniority. He expects students from at least four high schools to join tonight's protest. Gary Davis, KPLU News, Seattle.

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