Oak Grove Elementary School Principal Cris Flippen was given pink slips in 1981, '82 and '83 -- the first three years of her teaching career with Roanoke County Public Schools.

All three years she was called back to work in the county's classrooms, but the waiting wasn't easy. The first time, Flippen wasn't rehired until two weeks into the next school year, the second time it was August, and the third year she was notified in July.

Three decades later, she is the top administrator at one of the county's largest elementary schools, and in coming weeks she may be in a position where some of the teachers at her school could be laid off.

The county's school division is anticipating a reduction of about $8 million from the state next fiscal year. As financial shortfalls and budgetary uncertainties loom, school board Chairman Mike Stovall has said a likely scenario is to lay off all nontenured teachers; in most cases those are teachers with three or fewer years of teaching experience in Virginia. The division then would rehire as many as possible.

"It hasn't been done in years," said Steven Boyer, principal at Cave Spring Middle School. "It had been common practice."

Carol Whitaker, the county schools assistant superintendent of personnel, said more than 150 teachers have not obtained continuing contract status. By law the school board has until April 15 of each year to notify teachers whether their employment contracts will be renewed. Stovall said given the financial climate, it is better to err on the side of caution, giving all affected teachers layoff notices and then hiring back as many as possible based on enrollment needs and available funding.

Boyer, who began his career as a teacher with the county in 1979, was laid off at the end of his first two years.

"I wound up getting hired back both times," he said. "But when you are fresh out of college, just starting a job and trying to make a life for yourself, it is an emotional strain until you get your job back."

That unease is precisely why Superintendent Lorraine Lange said she urged new hires at last summer's teacher orientation not to take on new debt.

 "I knew it was going to be a tough year financially," she said. "I told them, 'Don't take on a big mortgage. Don't take on big loans, because I just can't guarantee there will be a job for you next year.' "

Anxiety among teachers is high, and just because Flippen has been through it personally, it doesn't make it any easier, she said. Nonetheless she wants to ease the worries of young teachers.

"Things do work out," she said. "If you had a crystal ball ... it would sure take a lot of stress off you. Right now there is no safe field. It is a sign of the times."

Julie Myers, who is now the principal of Glenvar Middle School, spent her first year in the county teaching math to middle and high school students. One spring day in the early 1990s -- in the middle of class -- there was a knock at her classroom door.

"There stood my principal and the director of personnel," Myers said.

She went out to the hallway, was handed her pink slip and then returned to class to resume the math lesson -- unflinchingly.

"It was a different time," Myers said. "We knew that as a first-year employee that was something that very often happened, so I was expecting it."

Lange said many of the division's newer teachers are not accustomed to what formerly was the norm.

"Financially there has been a lot of money in the schools over the last several years," she said. "This is new to a lot of the younger people, the newer people."