51 teachers and teacher assistants were laid off in Lamar County and Forrest County, Mississippi over the weekend. The job cuts were spread over four school districts in the largely rural part of Mississippi. The majority of those laid off, 32, were teacher assistants earning less than $20,000 per year.

“It’s not easy,” Petal School District Superintendent John Buchanan said, “to lay people off. But we wanted to keep as many certified teachers as we could. We looked at what we could do that would have the least impact on student achievement.”