The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District board on Tuesday decided to send layoff notices to about 23 full-time classified employees, including teaching and bilingual aides. The positions that likely will be cut are currently paid via categorical funding from a variety of sources, officials said. Trustees have sent similar layoff notices in years past and were able to rehire a majority of those employees. However, school officials do not anticipate they will receive the categorical funding needed next year to keep the positions due to the state's budget crisis. Final layoff notices …

Earlier this month, school officials notified a music teacher that the position may be eliminated. And trustees also decided Thursday to send layoff notices to 1.75 full-time equivalent English Language Learner teachers. Those were the only pink slips the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District sent its educators by March 15, the state education code's deadline to notify teachers of possible layoffs. The music job was funded this year by donations from the Livermore Valley Education Foundation. The organization is raising funds to keep the position from being eliminated. On Tuesday, …

Officials at Las Positas College are considering pushing back the registration date for high school students looking to take classes on campus. The proposal, recommended by faculty to the college's Academic Senate, would make it easier for full-time students to get the classes they need to graduate, some officials say. Students have found it difficult to get into required classes as the number of course offerings are shrinking throughout the state as colleges and universities try to balance losses in funding due to the state budget crisis. "It's not that we don't want the high school students…

Editor's note: This story is part of a nationwide Patch series probing the economy's effect on local schools. School officials are being cautious about the state's latest budget, which could erase a $3.4 million deficit they were expecting in 2012. The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District learned earlier this month the state no longer intends to move ahead with planned cuts to public education. "The budget is not as bleak as we expected," said Susan Kinder, chief business official. "But the state budget is based on shaky assumptions." Those assumptions include an increase in state …