DEARBORN — Students will have to stay home from school on Jan. 29 and Feb. 1 to allow teachers and administrators at Dearborn Public Schools to reorganize classes after the district implements massive mid-year cuts.

The district has laid off over 140 teachers in order to balance a budget strained by $12-million cuts imposed by the state last year.

Superintendent Brian Whiston said the district is calling back 26 of the laid-off teachers after the state restored $2 million in funding.

He hopes to bring back more if contract negotiations with the Dearborn Federation of Teachers can be completed.

“I’m hoping what we’re negotiating solves the problems and we don’t have to go through this ever again,” Whiston said.

Tensions have risen at school board meetings and in online forums between teachers and district officials, with administrators demanding teachers take concessions to avoid permanent layoffs, and teachers feeling pressured to bear an unfair share of the burden.

The union rejected the district’s initial proposal calling for 6.3 percent pay cuts, lengthened step-increase pay structures and insurance policy changes, but Dearborn Federation of Teachers President Chris Sipperley said teachers are not unwilling to make concessions.

“We’re not doubting that there’s a financial crisis going on in the state and the district,” she said. “I’m not saying that we’re not going to have to make some concessions… but every year, the first thing they try to cut is people… There’s a lot more that they can do that doesn’t directly affect the classroom.”

A long list of cost-saving suggestions made by teachers and others has been put to use by the district to help chip away at the deficit. But the district insists that results from measures like cutting technology costs and implementing energy-saving strategies were only a drop in the bucket. Personnel salaries and benefits make up about 85 percent of the budget, according to district officials.

The average Dearborn Schools teacher, in salary and benefits combined, is compensated at nearly $100,000 a year, according to both Sipperley and district officials.

Sipperley said that average is skewed by a high number of long-time teachers in the district on the high end of the pay scale. She said many with less seniority make much less, and that teachers have to pay thousands in continuing education costs to maintain certification.

A number of senior teachers are expected to soon take buyouts offered by the district in another cost-saving measure that could allow some more laid-off teachers to return to classrooms.

District officials say all laid off teachers could be brought back next year if the teachers took the proposed concessions.

Sipperley doesn’t believe the district has been willing to offer enough flexibility to move negotiations forward after the union’s rejection of the initial offer.

Whiston insists that there is ongoing give and take in the weekly negotiation meetings, but that teachers will have to make significant sacrifices.

“I would argue teachers should be the highest paid people in our community,” he said. “It’s just that in these tough economic times, we can’t afford to pay what they were being paid… If we can get through these tough two years, we should be able to sail going forward, when other districts might be struggling.”

Sipperley does believe the two sides will eventually come to an agreement.

“I’m an eternal optimist,” she said. “I still believe that there’s a great chance that we’ll be able to work something out.”