Members of the California School Employees Association will be protesting nearly a dozen potential layoffs to maintenance staff at tonight's Amador County Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting, the association pledged in a release.

The cuts are being proposed to help address a 16 percent budget reduction the district is facing due to the state's fiscal crisis. Under the proposal, 11 maintenance employees would be laid off by March 30, including nine maintenance and grounds workers, and two maintenance department clerical workers. Depending on the severity of the state's cuts to education, the district may have to also consider teacher layoffs. The district has until March 15 to issue those notices.

The proposal would also involve rewriting job descriptions and giving some positions new titles. Workers hired into the "new" jobs would receive approximately 75 percent of current pay rates. District Superintendent Dick Glock said laid off workers would be allowed to apply for the "new" jobs, but will not be guaranteed they will be hired.

The employees association is arguing that the district plan violates the union contract and state law. The union will take the matter to grievance arbitration and, if necessary, to the California Public Employment Relations Board, its release said.

At a union meeting in Jackson on Monday, 60 workers pledged to be at the district board meeting to protest the firing of the 11 maintenance workers. Maintenance department workers and their supporters will address the board at its meeting before trustees go into closed session to consider Glock's recommendation.