After weeks of discussion, a split State College Area school board voted Monday to formalize 21 layoffs and demotions, all to take effect this summer.

The changes, part of a fiscal plan to bridge a multi-million-dollar budget gap, will eliminate six, and reduce job responsibilities for two, positions due to declining student enrollment. The changes also will eliminate nine positions -- and reduce job responsibilities for one -- "to promote a more effective and efficient" school system, a district document reads.

Three employees who have not met certification requirements will be laid off, as well, according to the district.

The board, at its regular meeting, voted 5-4 to approve the layoffs and demotions, with David Hutchinson, Gowen Roper, Dorothea Stahl and Jim Leous dissenting.

Reporters had exited the board room to interview just-appointed Superintendent Robert J. O'Donnell when the board reached the layoff item on its meeting agenda. According to preliminary meeting notes provided by the district, Hutchinson, Roper and Leous expressed concern about several specific personnel cuts -- including those in private fundraising, engineering instruction and technology programming.

Several district residents spoke out against the technology-education reductions, as well, arguing that such instruction is not only crucial to society, but also has achieved excellence at State College Area High School.

The employees directly affected by the layoffs and demotions include one high-school teacher apiece in public safety, vocational agriculture, social studies, family and consumer science, math, technology education and engineering.

Also included on the layoff list are an electrician, a plumber, a technology manager, a private-fundraising specialist, an adult-education coordinator, two secretaries and five paraprofessionals. Another paraprofessional will be demoted.

The personnel cuts are part of a $111.6 million district spending plan that's won tentative board approval this spring. It includes more than $2 million overall in budget-balancing reductions, a response to rising fixed expenses, sluggish growth in the real-estate values, and a decline in federal and state support, among other concerns.

In all, the district plans to save more than $1.1 million by cutting 17 positions through attrition; more than $600,000 by cutting jobs through outside-the-classroom layoffs; and more than $450,000 through in-classroom layoffs and demotions.

The district employs about 1,400 people in all.

A final district budget vote is scheduled for June 27, though the budget may be reopened later in the year if the state budgeting process is prolonged beyond this month. State-budget negotiations may temper some anticipated funding cuts for 2011-2012, though the State College board has not formally decided how it will use the extra state money if it materializes.

Earlier coverage

• Turnout Light at State College Budget Hearing; Board Questioned over Tax Plan (June 7, 2011)

• O'Donnell Promises a Collaborative Approach as State College Superintendent (June 14, 2011)

• State High Toughens Dress-Code Standards (June 12, 2011)