MARIETTA - The same day the Cobb school board voted on its $819.4 million budget, which cut more than 1,000 teachers, the district posted more than 500 job listings on its website to begin the rehiring process.

On Wednesday afternoon, 536 certified/supervisory positions were posted. According to the human resources department, those included 132 special education jobs, 60 part-time teaching positions and 90 specialized positions, such as math and media specialists. Ten openings in leadership/administration were also posted along with 25 classified professional jobs such as campus police, lunchroom staff and clerical positions.

On April 22 the board voted 7-0 to lay off more than 1,000 teachers. As CCSD began the process of notifying teachers about their contracts the week of May 10, outraged teachers, parents and students began speaking to the board about the gravity of the situation.

The board voted 6-1 Wednesday, with Alison Bartlett dissenting, to approve the district's balanced, $819.4 million budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1. Facing an unprecedented shortfall of $126.7 million, the district was forced to cut more than 1,000 teachers, 68 central office and supporting staffers, 55 school or graduation counselors, 112 custodial positions and 100 bus drivers. By law, the district had to notify all employees by May 15 as to whether or not they would receive a contract for next school year.

District spokesman Jay Dillon said principals were allowed to begin hiring as soon as the jobs were posted Wednesday. Dillon, on Thursday afternoon, could not say how many teachers had been rehired because the number was changing by the minute, he said.

Now that the district is hiring back so many positions, teachers are questioning the need for such a sweeping cut in the first place. Tim Baker, CCSD's director of employment said that since the cuts were announced in April, more than 300 teachers have announced their retirement or resignation, and that the announcements continue to come in on a daily basis.

"Each notification we receive is one more teacher who we could potentially bring back by posting their position," Baker said via email Thursday.

Dillon said, "We were hopeful that we would be able to hire back some teachers, but we had no way of knowing for certain. We had a reasonable expectation that normal attrition would produce some vacancies, but we did not anticipate this many. Our most optimistic guess was about half this number, so we are very pleased to have the opportunity to bring back this many teachers."

Laid off teachers, like James Morris, think that the district should have planned better for the situation.

"I understand that we're in tough times right now," Morris said. "I do question a little bit why they laid 700 or so teachers off only to rehire some of them. I don't know if they were being shortsighted or what. I understand that it is tough and they're doing the best they can with the information they have."

Morris, however, a former East Cobb Middle School technology teacher, might be one of the lucky ones. He said he has already received several job offers from schools in the county, and expects to be back teaching again next year.

David Platt, an outspoken former Wheeler High School teacher, who began addressing the board at its budget planning meetings in March, calls the district's lack of foresight "insane." Although Platt, 39, and his wife were both laid off at Wheeler, the robotics, AP physics and post-AP aerospace engineering teacher has been warning the board about the detrimental effect mass layoffs would have on the morale of staff and students since it began crafting its FY 2011 budget.

"Most people are going into next year either completely devastated because their friends have lost their jobs, or because they're afraid for their own job," Platt said of his colleagues who will be returning to Cobb schools next year.

Platt and his wife, Jennifer Hager, a biology, chemistry, AP environmental science and post-AP DNA genetics teacher, have both been offered their jobs back at Wheeler, but have applied for and are considering jobs elsewhere.

"Part of the reason that I haven't applied to anything in the district, to me, it's a complete violation of trust," Platt said of the district's cut process.

He suspects that many of the Cobb teachers hired back will find themselves in the same position a year from now, since next year's budget threatens to be even worse.

Although Platt said his students, the Wheeler administration and community have been very supportive of him and his wife, they are questioning whether or not to return to the district because of the lack if job security.

"All the people we care the most about, they want us back," he said. "But I think they also understand that we need to make a decision that's going to be in the best interest of ourselves and our family in the long run. It's a very tough decision - it's heart versus brain."

Other teachers, who might not be as lucky as Platt and Morris are still fighting for their jobs. So far the district has 37 appeal hearings scheduled this summer for tenured teachers who have lost their jobs through the cuts. In order to be a tenured teacher you have to have taught for four years in Cobb County, or have been a tenured teacher in another district, and then taught for two additional years in Cobb.

Any tenured teacher who is laid off or fired from the district is allowed to contest that action through an appeal hearing, said John Adams, director of employee relations for CCSD. Most of the hearings scheduled for this summer, Adams said, are for teachers who were let go because of job performance issues, such as an unsatisfactory on a teacher evaluation.

In a hearing, the district's attorneys from Brock, Clay, Calhoun and Rogers argue the district's side before a tribunal, and the teacher and likely an attorney for that teacher argue their side. A tribunal board is usually made up of three board members, but this summer, the tribunal will be made up of retired educators from the county, to be more impartial. While the tribunal hears the case and makes a decision, ultimately it will be up to the board to decide whether or not the teacher will have a contract for next school year.

"We expect we probably won't have 37 (hearings) that will actually take place," Adams said. "We've scheduled 37, but we've just started to do the competitive rehiring process and we're hopeful that the principals will want to rehire some of these people."