VISTA -- In the midst of severe budget cuts across the state, good news came Tuesday to more than 100 teachers working in the Vista Unified School District when the school board voted to let them keep their jobs.

Trustees also voted at a special meeting Tuesday to wait two weeks before they decide how to proceed with construction of the district's magnet high school campus in eastern Oceanside.

The 113 teachers who received pink slips last month will stay in the classroom next year, which will allow the district to maintain smaller class sizes in kindergarten through third-grade classes.

"The sun hasn't shined outside today, but it's certainly shining inside of this room, as many of our teachers are ecstatic about this decision," Jan O'Reilly, president of the district's teachers union, told the board.

In February, the board voted to move toward eliminating 133 positions, including 120 full- and part-time teachers. This doesn't include the temporary teachers who the district may not bring back next year.

Tuesday's vote will undo that decision for the teachers. Still, 13 educators will remain on the layoff list, including seven assistant principals, three psychologists, a special education supervisor and two speech therapists.

Districts across the state are expecting to have to cut millions of dollars from their budgets in response to a state budget next year that's expected to have a shortfall of between $14.5 billion and $16 billion.

Vista Unified officials expect to have to cut between $8 million and $12 million from the roughly $200 million they had planned to spend next fiscal year.

The district will be able to keep the 113 teachers in the classroom by trimming from other parts of the budget, said Donna Caperton, the district's chief business officer.

"I'm very glad that we're going to be able to do this," Trustee David Hubbard said. "This is a bit of a silver lining."

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the board decided to pursue two different possibilities for Mission Vista High Schools, the 66-acre magnet campus the district is building near the intersection of Highway 76 and Melrose Drive.

The board will meet again April 22 to decide whether to continue with a proposed contract amendment from the company doing the bulk of the work on the site or walk away from that contract and seek another company to finish the work.

"I think we need to take some time … and go through it, so that we don't delay ourselves any further," Trustee David Hubbard said.

The already uncertain future of the project became even murkier two weeks ago, when district staffers said they didn't have the money to complete it according to current plans.

EDGE Development, the Temecula-based company doing most of the work, gave the district a revised proposal that would shave $2 million from its portion of the nearly $100 million project by reducing the money set aside for unexpected costs and offering the district savings on some of the work, Caperton said.

If the board accepts this proposal, the district could afford to finish the project, but just barely, Caperton said.

Board President Jim Gibson said he would be uncomfortable with cutting it so close.

"We have such a small, limited reserve that additions to the contract that are not discovered at this point would wipe us out," he said.

District officials had initially planned to open a campus with two themed high schools in 2006 and recently hoped to have it open this fall. However, a plethora of issues has delayed work on the site. The school board recently voted to wait until August 2009 to open the schools.

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