Yorktown teachers and school staffers will face potential layoffs by the beginning of the next school year in attempt to close the $1.4 million budget gap.

Yorktown Central School District Superintendent Dr. Ralph Napolitano says all his employees will remain in their positions through the end of the current school year, but by next fall, 44 people, 22 of them teachers, may be handed pink slips.

"We just wanted to give them a heads up," Napolitano says. "There is a chance they won't have a position here in the fall."

Napolitano says some of his staff members will receive a letter saying their positions will disappear, while others will be notified that they may end up teaching fewer classes.

"I'm upset for them, but we have to get it from somewhere," he says.

The Yorktown district and other districts across Westchester and the Hudson Valley are hoping to prevent job cuts with the help of federal stimulus dollars.