OCEANSIDE -- School officials in Oceanside voted Tuesday to send pink slips to 75 teachers and other employees as part of a plan to cut $12 million in spending next year.

The Oceanside Unified School District employees who will get the preliminary layoff notices include teachers, counselors, assistant principals and district administrators.

With a 3-1 vote, the school board agreed to notify the teachers that they may not have a job next year and eliminate nearly 20 other positions through attrition. Trustee Lillian Adams voted against the recommendation as a protest, she said.

"Our children will be the ones who suffer," she said after the vote. "It's not about teachers or classified, it's the children."

Before the vote, several teachers and counselors pleaded with the board to reconsider the cuts.

"Cuts need to be made somewhere else," said Zein Stearman, an English teacher at El Camino High School on the potential layoff list. "This isn't just something that you can just look at as a commodity that you're getting rid of. We are people."

About 50 nonteaching employees could also end up getting pink slips by the end of the month, school officials have said.

In order to trim spending next year, district officials expect to increase class sizes, charge for transportation and end most professional development, in addition to layoffs.

Final layoff notices won't come until May, but the district must formally let employees who are at risk know this month that they may not have a job next year. Receiving such a notice doesn't necessarily mean a teacher will get laid off, though jobs are secure for those who don't get one.

Last year, the district issued nearly 100 such notices but ended up bringing most of the employees back. However, the situation is much more grim this year and many of the pink-slipped teachers could lose their jobs, school officials have said.

"This is one of the most painful things a superintendent has to do," Superintendent Larry Perondi said at Thursday's meeting. "I take absolutely no pleasure in this whatsoever."

District officials expect to spend $174 million next year, down from nearly $177 million this year.

Salaries and benefits make up about 85 percent of the district's budget.

With fewer teachers, some classes will have more students. Perondi is recommending increasing the student-teacher ratio from 20 to 24 students in kindergarten through third grade and increasing high school classes to 33 students. This move would save the district more than $3 million each year, he said.

Classes in grades four through eight would stay the same size.

The trustees said they were upset at having to increase class sizes and lay off teachers, blaming state legislators for reducing education funding for local districts.

"Contact your legislators," board President Adrianne Hakes said. "Let them know that this is awful."

Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.