Mark Bligh, a music teacher at Woods Road Elementary School, could loss his job next year. (Newsday / Karen Wiles Stabile / March 26, 2009)

Most Long Island school districts plan to reduce numbers of teachers and other employees as part of next year's budget proposals, according to a Newsday survey and interviews with veteran school leaders.

The scaleback plans are far beyond anything seen since the early 1990s.

Dozens of districts already have warned workers that they stand to lose jobs in June, as budgets tighten and enrollments dwindle. South Huntington has issued pink slips to some 90 school workers, Hempstead to 110 and Brentwood to 190.

Some jobs could be restored, school officials say, once they learn exactly how much money they will get from a $787 billion federal stimulus package. Even so, there are widespread fears that in future years schools will be forced to impose even deeper cuts in staffing and student services, as federal aid dries up and districts run through financial reserves.

"Thirty years as a superintendent, and this is the worst I've seen in my career," said Joseph Laria, the acting schools chief in Hempstead. "We've been developing our budget against the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression."

Newsday surveyed officials in 48 of the Island's 124 districts. Thirty-seven of those districts, or 77 percent, said they planned to shed positions, through layoffs or attrition.

Thomas Shea, superintendent of South Huntington schools and president of the Suffolk County Association of School Superintendents, says virtually all his colleagues in Suffolk expect layoffs. Ronald Friedman, chief of Great Neck schools and president of Nassau's Council of School Superintendents, says layoffs could hit more than half of all districts there.

Cutbacks reflect a nationwide trend. Last week, the American Association of School Administrators released findings that 44 percent of districts expect to lay off personnel next year, while 22 percent plan cuts in academic services.

Despite planned layoffs on the Island, school budgets are slated to continue climbing next year at rates ranging from 1 to 4 percent, according to districts' preliminary projections. Most districts will set final figures next month.

The principal factor, officials say, is contractual pay raises.

School taxes also will continue rising in most cases. A notable exception is Smithtown, where school officials aim at a zero tax increase, or even a cut. Elsewhere, many districts face an uphill task in selling budgets to local residents in advance of May's voting.

In Massapequa and Glen Cove, school superintendents have announced they will forego pay raises next year, and have challenged employees to do the same. School spending accounts for 66 percent of the Island's property taxes, with 70 percent of that spending on school payrolls and fringe benefits.

"If everybody pitches in and gives a little, we can save jobs and keep everybody working, at least for this year," Shea said.

Shea has offered to give up five days' pay next year, if any of his district's five employee unions agree to equivalent cuts. His current salary of $255,000 has become a target for local critics.

School unions so far have rejected such overtures - and for good reason, their leaders say. Glen Cove's teacher union recently turned down a district request to give up a 3.5 percent pay raise negotiated in June, which is on top of annual step raises already built into pay schedules.

Union president Karen Ferguson notes that, before that agreement, members went two years without a contract. Ferguson adds that the district's starting pay of $51,000 for teachers is hardly lavish by regional standards, and that teachers must work 30 years and earn extra college credits before reaching top scale of about $127,000.

"You really are struggling in the beginning, until you get to a halfway decent level," said Ferguson. She has taught special education in the district 18 years and now earns $112,000.

Newsday also found a growing number of districts planning to cut student services.

In Bellmore-Merrick, school officials have been buttonholed by parents, demanding to know why they decided to stop sending students to a popular training program in professional art, dance and theater. The program, known as the Long Island High School for the Arts, is operated in Syosset by Nassau BOCES.

Ellen Fantauzzi, a Bellmore-Merrick spokesman, said her district could no longer afford the school's tuition charge of $13,931 per student next year for a half-day program.

Lindsey Monaco, 15, a 10th-grader in the Bellmore-Merrick system, said she broke into tears last fall when informed of the district's decision.

"Like, I had been planning my life around it," said the 10th-grader, who has studied dance since she was 2 and hopes to make it a career.

Across the Island, the squeeze on services is fanning demands for pay concessions by school employees. At a recent school board meeting in Levittown, school officials spoke of projected cuts in summer school, lessons for the intellectually gifted and other programs.

Later, the floor was opened to residents who wanted to voice objections, including a local housepainter, Tom Kolman.

"Why is it always the children and taxpayers who suffer?" Kolman asked. "Did the board ask the teachers to step up and do their share?"

He was told that any district negotiations with employee unions are kept confidential