Nearly 1,000 Chicago Public Schools staffers -- including 494 teachers -- will be laid off, district officials announced Friday.

The other 492 layoffs will affect school support personnel. 

CPS employees impacted by the layoffs will have an opportunity to apply for 1,000 open positions within the district.

A CPS spokeswoman said the "staffing changes are part of the normal process of school planning, and there are more vacant positions in the district than staff who will be impacted today, with roughly 1,000 teaching vacancies to be filled."

The Chicago Teachers Union released the following statement Friday:

CPS continues to inflict damage on our school district by implementing layoffs, cutting special education services and other programs that help students excel. The gutting of experienced educators and other school employees only weakens schools and puts children at a disadvantage. This is no way to run a 21st century school district.

This latest round of layoffs comes when Mayor Rahm Emanuel is seeking more tax hikes from Chicago's working families while he continues to ignore demands that he go after wealthy developers and others who enrich themselves at the public's expense. If the city and Chicago Board of Education exhibited leadership by implementing progressive revenue strategies, such as declaring a TIF surplus and reinstating a corporate head tax, these layoffs could have been avoided.