Hundreds of Santa Barbara School District staff members have received layoff notices and, without a deadline to rescind them, they could be in limbo until September, according to Deputy Superintendent Eric Smith.

He said Gov. Jerry Brown’s recently revised budget appears to keep school funding at current levels, but districts have been advised to be wary about bringing back staff members too soon.

The Santa Barbara district hopes to avoid drastic layoffs by negotiating furloughs and a shorter school year with employee unions, but it has given notices to 180 classified staff and 112 certificated staff members in the meantime.

“It’s most honest to tell our people we won’t know until the end of June how many we can rescind,” Superintendent Brian Sarvis said.

Smith said employees could be hired back in tiers over the next few months.

“Overnoticing” gives the district some security since unification of the secondary and elementary districts — if approved later this month — would essentially guarantee all district employees’ jobs for the next two years, administrators have said.

The districts don’t have duplicated staffing as most unifying districts do, which is the point of the protections in place.

Classified staff members include secretaries, athletic trainers, accounting assistants, campus safety assistants, computer support technicians, custodians, food service assistants, gardeners, housekeepers, instructional assistants, intervention center assistants, library technicians, office assistants, school health assistants and other support staff.

Certificated staff members include teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses and assistant principals.

Dos Pueblos High School English teacher and Mock Trial coach Bill Woodard, who received an Excellence in Education award at the district’s 145th anniversary celebration last week, is one of the 112 certificated staff members to receive layoff notices, according to district documents.

Click here for a full list of certificated employees who were given layoff notices.

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.