More Than 300 Teachers, Administrators Facing the Ax : Education: Pink slips loom in budget crunch. Capistrano, Newport-Mesa, Placentia-Yorba Linda districts are hard hit.

Among teachers and administrators, this week is where the rubber meets the road. It’s Layoff Week.

As students anticipate their summer escapes, teachers in some districts are wondering if they will have jobs next fall. All over the state, educators have watched their budget needles slip into the red while waiting for the state, which supplies the bulk of their funding, to decide on exactly how much to give the beleaguered districts for the 1992-93 academic year.

In Orange County, it appears that more than 300 teachers and administrators will be receiving pink slips. They were forewarned of the possibility in mid-March, the state-mandated deadline for school districts to send out preliminary layoff notices. Later this week, those who received the early warnings will know whether they have really lost their jobs.

Around the county, some districts have already made the tough decisions. Others that are still wrestling with them must make up their minds by Friday, when districts must mail out the final layoff notices as required by state law.

“Nobody in education wants to go through what districts are going through right now,” said John L. Nelson, assistant superintendent for business services at the Orange County Department of Education.

The hardest hit districts in Orange County this year are Capistrano Unified, which will pink-slip about one-eighth of its certificated staff of 1,300; Newport-Mesa Unified, which plans to lay off about 99, and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, with about 50 layoffs planned.

James A. Fleming, superintendent of Capistrano Unified, said he is bracing for the worst. The district board on Monday night voted to lay off 177 employees. Fleming said he hopes to be able to hire back as many as he can if state budget funding allows.

Superintendents emphasized that the planned layoffs are an ultra-cautionary move, a preparation for the worst-case scenario in the state budget. If the money flow from Sacramento improves, some of those laid off could be rehired.

The Huntington Beach Union High School district will mail pink slips today to four nurses and four psychologists and will reduce its auto shop teacher to half-time. The La Habra City district is axing nine teachers, and Westminster is laying off one nurse.

At least a dozen of Orange County’s 27 districts are planning no layoffs, but most of those are sacrificing something else. In Santa Ana Unified, teachers have been told not to expect any pay raises, and the Brea-Olinda Unified district is considering increasing class size and paring back the hours of its library aides.

If the state budget picture grows even worse than local school boards had anticipated, they could have another opportunity to make another round of layoffs after the state budget is adopted.

Nelson said it is wrenching each year for local districts to adopt budgets without knowing for certain how much money they will receive from the state. The state budget is supposed to be signed by June 30, but officials anticipate a significant delay this year.

“It puts districts at a tremendous disadvantage when there’s so much insecurity,” Nelson said. “The districts’ budgets are tighter now than ever. Their reserve levels are lower than ever. And there is nothing so far that makes us believe that in the next few months we’re going to pull out of this.”