The Benton Harbor School Board voted to layoff 20 staff members Tuesday while negotiations to reduce the pay of the district's remaining teachers continue.

The district has a deficit of $18 million and is undergoing a preliminary review of its finances by the state. If state education leaders are not satisfied by the progress the district is making to curb the cash flow problem they could begin a formal review and eventually institute an emergency manager.

Earlier this month the board voted to close its Fairplain West Elementary and Fairplain Renaissance Middle School. Starting in late January, grades 7 and 8 will be held at the high school, but the district said the students will have a separate entrance and there will be no interaction between high school and middle school students. Elementary students will be consolidated into other schools, which means the district can layoff 13 teachers, an administrator and six support staff workers.

"The goal isn’t to reduce our faculty and staff to the point where we are jeopardizing teaching and instruction," said Superintendent Leonard Seawood. "We know that we can maximize our classrooms, but will we do it in all of our classrooms? Absolutely not. Absolutely not, it's not necessary."

The maximum number of students to a classroom is 32.

During the summer, the district will work on its long term plan to create K-8 schools and one high school.

"This layoff notices that we will give [Wednesday] will not be the end of it because we are still in over our heads and we will still look at ways to address our financial distress and our budget deficit," said Seawood.

The district remains in negotiations with the teacher's union after about 66 percent of teachers voted against a prior agreement. Seawood was asking them to take a 10 percent pay cut and pay up to 20 percent of their insurance premiums. Currently, teachers pay about six percent.

"We are still stuck on those issues and we continue to work on those and we continue to be civil and continue to be cordial and understand the necessity for us to work together and get this done," said Seawood, who was unsure when the next agreement could be voted on by the teachers.

The district is still hoping to have an agreement in place by December 20th when the state completes its review. Seawood said at Tuesday's meeting the teacher concessions is the only outstanding item on the list it was given by the state to avoid a formal review.