Faced with $700,000 in cuts from the current budget, the Mathews County School Board is considering the layoff of as many as 27 employees as it begins the process of developing its 2012-2013 budget.

During a budget workshop held late Tuesday afternoon in the Mathews High School multi-purpose room, Superintendent of Schools David J. Holleran told board members that some positions will have to be eliminated in the coming year to make up for an increase of roughly $500,000 in the division’s Virginia Retirement Service payments and the loss of about $200,000 in one-time federal Education Jobs Fund money.

"We are going to have to do layoffs for the very first time," he announced. In recent years, Holleran and the school board were able to avoid layoffs through deep budget cuts and not filling positions once someone has retired.

"Attrition helped us very much," he said. This year, that won’t be the case, as no teachers are scheduled to retire, Holleran added.

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