STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) – Over 35 Stevens Point area teachers are out of a job next year as the district finalized $2.9 million dollars worth of layoffs across the district.

The teachers effected by the layoffs tired to make their case tonight, but board members voted 5 to 4 in favor of the reductions.

Superintendent Steve Johnson says the final count of teachers laid off won't be known until district staff go over the budgets, since all of those layoffs are measured in Full Time Equivalents, or measures of how long a teacher works each year.

Teachers union contract co-chair Paul Shogren says the union understands that the district needs to find that money in the budget, but that the teachers are committed to finding as many efficiencies as they can to help save money for the district.

The administration will now turn to trying to find other cuts in the budget to see if they can start bringing teachers back before a May 15th cut off date in the contracts.