The Wake County school system has eased a teacher hiring freeze that was put in place for the 2010-11 school year because of state budget cuts.

Principals were told last week that they could hire people in a variety of areas, including physical education teachers, K-6 classroom teachers who don't teach electives or specials and middle school and high school teachers in math, English, Social Studies and science. Principals can also hire assistant principals now.

Previously, the freeze implemented in April only exempted the hiring of English As A Second Language and special education teachers.

Durham-based Quintiles Transnational Corp laid off an undisclosed number of employees Thursday as the company looks for more efficient ways to conduct clinical trials for its customers.

"I can tell you that it's very limited," Quintiles spokesman Phil Bridges said. "And it is not limited to this area." 

The company did not file a notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, something that is required by federal law any time a company is planning to shut down a facility or lay off a large number of workers.

Bridges also said Quintiles continues to hire in areas where the company needs additional resources. The company lists 351 job openings in the U.S. on its Web site.

Quintiles, the largest contract drug research company in the world, has more than 20,000 employees working in 60 countries. About 1,400 are located in the Triangle.

State and local officials have promised Quintiles incentives worth up to $25 million over 12 years. Thus far the company has exceeded the requirements of a state incentives package it was awarded in 2006.

Quintiles was started more than 25 years ago by former UNC-Chapel Hill professor Dennis Gillings.

Gillings took the company private in 2003 and no longer has to disclose detailed financial reports. The company's global revenue is reportedly approaching $3 billion.

UNC system officials want the power this year to institute furloughs across the public university system.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles and others say the measure would be preferable to the more than 1,000 layoffs that would be necessary if the spending plan Perdue proposed last week was adopted.

Perdue called for a 4 percent cut to the UNC system's budget, which would be added to a 2 percent cut included in the 2-year budget approved last year.

Taken together, those cuts would force the elimination of about 1,200 jobs across the system, half of which would be faculty, Bowles has said.

Instituting furloughs would spread the pain but might save jobs, officials argue.

"The thought of the damage 1,200 fewer faculty and staff will permanently do to our university and the quality of education we offer our students makes me sick," Bowles wrote in a recent e-mail to Andy Willis, Perdue's senior advisor for governmental affairs. "I know it does our governor too."

University officials have said for weeks already that the loss of the more than 900 jobs eliminated during last year's budget-cut process was nearly crippling, and campuses can't do much more. 

The university system must be formally granted the authority to institute furloughs.

"Furloughing would be the absolute last option and only if we felt the cuts would be so big its the only alternative to laying people off," said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors. 

Last year, North Carolina imposed a 10-hour furlough on all state workers.

Faculty and staff leaders within the university system have already signed off on the furloughs as an acceptable alternative, officials say.

"There's nothing worse than losing a colleague," said McKay Coble, chair of the faculty council at UNC-Chapel Hill. "If furlough is the way to go, I'd much rather do that."

State Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, co-chairman of the appropriations committee on education, said the university should have the authority in case it needs to use it.

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Stevens said. "But I think it's good for the university system to have all the tools it needs. 

Bob Luebke argues that the Wake County school system should cut more Central Services positions before making further budget cuts in schools.

In a blog post today for the conservative Civitas Institute, Luebke is skeptical of the school administration's claims that schools now need to bear the brunt of the cut. Staff is proposing that schools bear 80 percent of the new state cut in education funding.

"Can anyone honestly say teaching staff should be cut before additional layoffs to Facilities Planning, Auxiliary Services or Growth and Planning?," Luebke writes. "If the purpose of Wake County Schools is to educate students, shouldn’t the budget reflect those priorities?"

Borrowing a phrase from Dirty Harry, is the Wake County school system feeling lucky now?

As noted in today's article, school leaders aren't thrilled that they're facing $20 million in state cuts for the coming fiscal year. But they're at least relieved that, for now, they're not looking at teacher layoffs.

"The cuts are pretty severe but I'm glad that Wake County still has some flexibility," said Keith Sutton, chairman of the school board's finance committee.

Here's a recap of today's Wake County school board finance committee discussion.

Administrators said that schools would have to bear the brunt of the $20 million in new state cuts because central services has been slashed so much in the past. Here's a list of the cuts.

The upshot is that schools will probably have larger class sizes and fewer teachers, teacher assistants, media specialists and school supplies. Athletic coaches, department chairs and other teachers receiving extra duty pay will see a 30 percent cut for those services.

It looks like hundreds of Wake County teachers will be facing job limbo for the new few months as part of the school district's efforts to deal with $20 million in state cuts.

Central office implemented a hiring freeze on Monday for the 2010-11 school year as one of the responses to the new 3 percent state cut. Only ESL and special education teachers are exempted from the freeze.

The freeze means teachers on one-year contracts can't be rehired for next year until the budget situation becomes clearer. Jennifer Lanane, president of Wake NCAE, said 800 teachers fit into that category.

The budget news is getting even worse for the Wake County school system.

Chief Business Officer David Neter told school board members today to expect a 3 percent state funding cut for this fall that would cost the district $20 million. He said this cut would directly impact the classroom.

Neter said plans on where the cuts would be made will be presented to the finance committee next week.

IBM's nationwide layoff total has passed the 2,900 mark at Research Triangle Park and other company locations, according to a union trying to organize the company's workers.

The Alliance@IBM this week posted the newest layoff total on its web site, www.endicottalliance.org, as more information trickled in from laid off workers.

IBM doesn't disclose how many people it lays off, and the Alliance@IBM has filled the void as an information clearinghouse for workers, investors, competitors and journalists.

Wilson is about to lose another employer.

The Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. is closing its manufacturing facility on April 30 and letting go 97 workers. The sites makes corrugated packaging.

Smurfit-Stone makes boxes, packages and store displays. The company is in the midsts of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and is restructuring operations.

The company notified the N.C. Department of Commerce of the pending layoffs last week. Smurfit-Stone has dual headquarters in Chicago and near St. Louis, Missouri.

Wilson, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, is also losing its only Sears store. The store is closing its doors May 9 and letting go 54 workers.