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GREENSBORO — Guilford County Schools are cutting another 223 positions from schools next year, bringing the total number of jobs eliminated from the 2009-10 budget to 375. However, officials believe they will be able to find jobs for most of those being displaced.

Officials released this latest round of cuts Tuesday and blamed them on lower enrollment projections and cuts to per-student funding. Principals have discretion with this money, and could spend it on computers or maybe teachers.

Officials say they have already found jobs within the school system for 54 displaced workers and have identified another 161 workers they will try to place in new jobs over the next two weeks.

The remainder of the displaced workers have either retired, resigned or were on short-term contracts, said Peggy Thompson, chief human resources officer.

Thompson remains optimistic about finding new jobs for the displaced workers, most of whom are licensed teachers. The system has 173 teacher vacancies and 75 classified — or nonteaching —  vacancies in the budget to be filled.

“I think we’re going to be pretty close” to finding jobs for everyone, Thompson said.

Because there are still several weeks before the end of school, more teachers could decide to retire or resign as well, she said.

Thompson and her staff will meet with elementary and middle school employees today and high school employees on Thursday.

Going by seniority, teachers will have the chance to select a new job from the pool of vacancies.

They will work with classified staff next week.

“We’re certainly going to try to minimize the impact that schools feel and parents feel and students feel” said Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green. But “it’s hard to make these kinds of cuts and there not be some kind of impact.”

Mark Jewell, president of the Guilford County Association of Teachers, said his group believes the school system is doing everything it can to find teachers new jobs.

“They continue to assure us that they’re doing everything they can to find everyone a job come July 1,” Jewell said.

The news of the additional cuts comes as bitter justification for one school board member. Board member Garth Hebert has said the number of laid-off employees could reach 300 or more since Green presented his $651.8 million budget proposal to the board last month.

And he believes the school system could be in for more cuts once lawmakers pass a state budget.

Hebert said his one cause for optimism is that federal stimulus money will allow the schools to rehire some of those teachers. However details about what restrictions will be placed on that money are slow in coming. 

“I wish someone would start saying 'This is where you stand and this is how you can allocate it,’” he said.

Despite all that, he thinks the academic impact might not be as dramatic as it seems.

“If the board does it properly, I don’t think the students are going to notice,” he said.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com