The Jordan School Board is asking a state judge to rule on how seniority must be calculated for its employees as it plans to lay off about 500 staff members and educators.

Without clarification about how seniority should be considered, the district could face liability in numerous potential lawsuits, the 3rd District Court complaint said. It names the Jordan Education Association (JEA) and the Jordan Classified Education Association, and has been assigned to Judge Joseph Fratto.

Whatever the judge determines could well decide who among Jordan's teachers would be most vulnerable to layoffs.

The Jordan board, in the face of a projected $30 million shortfall, has decided to cut about 500 jobs, including 200 to 250 teachers.

The board now plans to eliminate employees in each school based on the number of years they have worked for the district. In other words, the jobs of those teachers with the least district seniority in each school would be at risk.

Each school would lose a number of teachers proportional to the school's enrollment, said Steve Dunham, district spokesman.

The district office will also be considered as a "school" in the process, meaning those workers will also be laid off according to who has the least district seniority in that office. That way, Dunham said, district office workers, many of whom have a lot of experience, won't bump new teachers out of schools.

"We felt like bumping like that would be very disruptive to the education we're trying to provide in Jordan district," he said.

But the teachers union believes layoffs should be based on years of service across the district as a whole, not district seniority as divided by school.

"There are many good reasons a teacher changes schools, whether to stay closer to home, change grade levels or open a new school," said Jordan Education Association President Robin Frodge. "We shouldn't be penalizing teachers for that."

Furthermore, said Frodge, gauging seniority at the school level for the purposes of layoffs, "creates a situation of lucky schools and unlucky schools."

Dunham said the district will abide by the court's opinion, whatever in may be. Seeking the judgment now could eliminate confusion, and lawsuits, once layoffs occur, he said.

"We acknowledge that the policy could be interpreted differently," Dunham said, "and we feel it a great benefit to get an opinion from the courts, because we want to do the right thing first off so we don't have to go back to it after the fact."

Tribune reporter Kirsten Stewart contributed to this story.