Some Wake teachers will be working under precarious conditions this upcoming school year.

The school board voted tonight to hire new teachers who start after July 1 on temporary contracts, meaning they can be fired at will. This doesn't apply to new hires for ESL and special education.

It's a big distinction because these new hires would likely be the first to go should the state's budget situation worsen and lead to more cuts.

In another sign of the crummy economy, the school system announced today that it's cancelling the Spring Job Fair.

Principals have traditionally used the Spring Job Fair to fill vacancies for the upcoming school year. In the absence of the job fair, would-be Wake teachers can still submit job applications.

School officials say they need to address their budget needs first before a fair can be held.

Duke University will soon roll out an incentive plan in the hopes of convincing about 700 workers to retire.

The cost-savings measure is one of several moves the university is making to cut $125 million from its operating budget over the next three years.

Administrators announced plans for the retirement initiative at a mid-day public campus forum focusing on budget issues. While not all the plan’s specifics are yet known, officials said they hoped to target between 600 and 700 non-exempt workers at least 50 years old with at least 10 years of service to Duke.

The offer wouldn’t be available to faculty or “exempt,” or professional staff members.

Thirty-one newsroom colleagues are leaving today. That’s a number those of us remaining can’t even process really, especially when you add in the number of those we’ve lost already.

Used to be when someone left, there’d be cake in the newsroom, a few kind words, or many kind words if that someone had been here a decade or two, words that included a recognition of the appreciated contributions. As far as I know, there’s no cake today. And I don’t know whether there will be any words at all. Because finding any that are a comfort at this point is nearly impossible.

Get ready for a flurry of staff transfers after the end of the school year as principals figure out how to staff their schools for next year.

Principals are trying to figure out how to run schools with only 95 percent of their positions filled for next school year. Schools that aren't expecting enrollment to grow by at least 5 percent will lose positions.

Principals say they want to make a quick call so that continuing-contract employees whose positions will be eliminated will be able to work with Human Resources to find a job elsewhere in the district.

UPDATE

The story wound up being held. I'll link to the story when it runs in the next day or two.

Click here for the article.

At N.C. State, up to 150 people may be laid off by July 1 and classes will be trimmed by about 3,000 seats.

So reports Jay Price today in our latest look at how the bad economy is hitting our local universities.

Have a look here.

It's a bleak time to be a Wake school employee.

As noted in today's article, the letters went out this month to 1,496 people telling them that they won't be Wake employees after their contracts expire June 30. We're talking about a lot of teacher assistants, assistant principals and teachers.

Amid all this, parents will urge the school board today to not convert Leesville Road Middle School to a year-round calendar. In addition to the capacity arguments, they're stressing how leaving the school on a traditional calendar could save money that helps people keep their jobs.

The hiring uncertainty with the terminating-contract employees is having an impact on high school athletics as well.

As noted in today's article by Tim Stevens, quite a few athletic directors and coaches are on terminating contracts. They, like all 1,496 terminating-contract employees, don't know if they'll be rehired after their contracts expire June 30.

"No one knows. Everyone has questions, but no one has many answers," said Bob Catapano, Sanderson High's athletic director and a person on a terminating contract, in today's article.

Because the county is not hiring new teachers, some athletic directors wonder where next year's coaches will come from if any current coaches decide to not coach.

Maybe it's because we're faced with the devastating loss of 27 more newsroom colleagues that I found Gov. Beverly Perdue's discussion of retraining efforts for white-collar workers one of the more interesting things she talked about in a meeting with the ed board last week. She said it's really the first time the country has been faced with trying to retrain high-finance and high-tech workers for other fields (not that we're high-tech or high-income here at ye ol' N&O, you understand).

Take a listen.

We'll call this an end of the week effort at rumor control.

As one poster commented today, letters are going out this week telling people on terminating contracts that they expire on June 30. But school officials say this is the same letter they send out at this time every year.

The difference, according to Michael Evans, chief communications officer, is that people on terminating contracts are noticing the letters this time. In the past, he said people ignored them because they'd routinely be rehired after the letters were sent.

Evans said they're still waiting to find out how much state funding is coming to determine how many of the 1,496 terminating-contract employees will be rehired.