Teachers Facing Layoffs Worry About Their Shaky Future : Education: School board member Roberta Weintraub tells demonstrators their only hope is a tax increase.

Van Nuys High School teacher Cathy Lambert is understandably worried--her baby is due 10 days after her health insurance is to expire.

Lambert’s colleague, social studies teacher Scott Albert, said he has also done his share of handwringing over the prospect of losing his job in June.

“I’ve got a baby coming, puppies to feed and a mortgage to pay,” Albert said.

Lambert and Albert are two of more than 2,100 teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors who are agonizing over the possibility of losing their jobs with the Los Angeles Unified School District in June. At Van Nuys High School, 13 teachers from the staff of 125 have received notices.

Bracing for more than $300 million in budget cuts for next year, the district two weeks ago mailed layoff and transfer notices, the first large-scale notification in a decade.

Although some notices could be rescinded if the state’s financial outlook improves, district officials say the gloomy budget forecast unveiled this week by Gov. Pete Wilson makes the prospect increasingly unlikely.

The school board must vote on the layoffs by the last week in June.

“Nobody wants to send out layoff notices, but the money is not there,” said school board member Roberta Weintraub, who represents the eastern half of the San Fernando Valley, including Van Nuys.

Weintraub made her remarks to more than 50 teachers, parents and students who staged a demonstration Tuesday at the school district headquarters downtown to protest the layoffs. She told the group that the only hope for districts such as Los Angeles, which faces increasing enrollment combined with budget cuts, is to demand increases in state taxes for schools.

Teachers at Van Nuys High said they decided to become the first school to protest the layoffs after waiting two weeks for the teacher’s union to organize such demonstrations.

United Teachers-Los Angeles spokeswoman Catherine Carey said the union is opposed to layoffs and is holding informational meetings this week.

But Weintraub’s explanations about the district’s budget troubles did little to comfort the Van Nuys teachers who face the prospect of finding a new career two months from now.

The Van Nuys teachers said an abrupt end to their jobs would be especially cruel because of the district’s long-running teacher shortage, which lured some of them away from other careers. They have formed a support group that meets once a week at lunch to talk over their fears.

Citywide, the teachers who received the notices were mostly those who had less than three years on the job and who taught subjects such as wood shop, auto repair, physical education, social studies and the arts. The district continues to hire elementary school teachers who speak Spanish, as well as teachers of subjects such as math and science.

Others notified of layoffs were 276 school nurses, 226 school psychologists and more than 100 attendance counselors.

Students joining the protest said the layoff of auto repair teacher Richard Mayer, agriculture teacher Jim Knapp and dance teacher Ed Garcia may mean the end of those courses at Van Nuys High School.

“I’ve been able to learn how to work on my car,” said Fumitaka Hayashi, 17, who owns a 1967 Mustang. “It doesn’t make sense when classes are getting bigger to have fewer teachers.”

Cheerleader Cheryl-Lynn Castillo, 16, said the layoff of Garcia will eliminate dance classes at the Van Nuys Performing Arts Magnet School.

Student Teddy Slottow, 17, said the district will lose the teachers that it needs the most. “These teachers are young and energetic, which is what we need,” he said.

After listening to board member Weintraub explain the district’s financial dilemma, parent Wendy Nassiri threw up her hands and said, “You just feel hopeless and helpless.”