High school district officials will meet Thursday to consider how many employees they must lay off to balance their shrinking budget after only one person took advantage of an early retirement incentive.

"Only one employee had taken advantage of the buyout incentive" by the Feb. 29 deadline, said Corinne Parillo, a trustee of the Nevada Joint Union High School District, late Tuesday night.

School officials learned in January that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would axe about $4 billion from California's budget for education - translating to $124,000 for western Nevada County's high schools for the current school year and $2.3 million for the coming year. Administrators had offered $50,000 to senior employees who would agree to retire early, saving the district significant personnel costs. They had budgeted for up to 10 such buyouts.

When asked what the consequences would be of the lower-than-hoped-for participation, Parillo replied, "I don't know, but we have a special meeting this Thursday where we will look at the layoff numbers."

Employees must be notified of a layoff by March 15 for the coming school year.