The Pasco school district has not laid off any employees this year despite the rough economy.

Even so, the district is projecting a deficit in its unemployment insurance costs, chief financial officer Olga Swinson told the School Board today.

In the first quarter of 2009-10, the district spent $250,000 on unemployment, up from $100,000 for all of 2008-09. If the trend remains on its current pace, Swinson said, the district will fall $700,000 short on this line item: "We didn't budget enough."

Superintendent Heather Fiorentino explained that several factors are at play. Among them:

• Pasco County has a 12.5 percent unemployment rate.
• The Pasco school district is the county's largest employer, and so people who worked there as many as three years ago and got laid off from later jobs still can make claims against the district.

Fiorentino said the district staff is examining every claim to determine whether it is legitimate. She also has contacted local lawmakers to see if there's anything the state government can do.

"We almost tripled the amount (of unemployment insurance) in our budget, and we haven't even laid anyone off," she said. "Yet because of the way the law is written, we're still being impacted."

The Pasco legislative delegation was scheduled to meet Friday, where Fiorentino expected to present the issue. That meeting has been canceled because of a special session of the Legislature called in Tallahassee beginning Thursday.