DALLAS—Facing an $84 million shortfall this fiscal year, Dallas school district trustees voted to lay off nearly 1,100 employees, including about 550 teachers.

The vote Thursday was 5-2 in favor of layoffs, with one abstention.

The decision to lay off teachers comes three days after Superintendent Michael Hinojosa laid off 63 staffers from the central office and eliminated about another 100 unfilled jobs. All those positions were for employees working without contracts, so the layoffs did not require school board approval.

Non-contract employees will receive notices by October 9. Contract employees, including teachers, will be notified between October 10-17.

More than 400 of the lost jobs include teachers in the core subject areas of math, science, social studies and English. An additional 500 employees—such as teacher aides, hall monitors and clerks—will also lose their jobs.

“This has been emotional,” Hinojosa said in a story in The Dallas Morning News. “It will be painful for those who leave, and it will be painful for those who stay.”

Hinojosa pledged a “deliberate and thoughtful” process in determining which teachers would lose their jobs. He said the district’s two teacher groups will “watch over our shoulders” to make sure the layoffs are handled fairly.

Teachers with low seniority and poor evaluations are the likeliest to get laid off, said Aimee Bolender, president of the Alliance AFT teachers association. NEA-Dallas employees association President Dale Kaiser called the layoff vote “a dark day for the district, a dark day for the children of the Dallas ISD.”