Toronto District School Board trustees voted in favour of the first of a series of proposed staff cuts Wednesday as they struggle to make up a projected $110-million budget shortfall.

The cuts voted on include 200 secondary school teachers, one high school vice-principal and 134 clerical staff.

The board also voted to hire 215 elementary school educators.

Decisions on further cuts, which will mainly come to educational assistants, were deferred until next week. A decision to hire more early childhood educators was also deferred.

Some of the cuts will come through attrition as older staff members retire.

A trustee committee voted during a meeting on March 21 to refer the proposed cuts to the board, putting the issue up for consideration during Wednesday's meeting.

"We're talking about removing a classification of staff which is pretty much unique to Toronto, which is education assistants," said Trustee Howard Goodman.

Many of the current budget woes are due to the implementation of full-day kindergarten, which forced the board to hire additional early childhood educators and elementary school teachers as the program is rolled out against the province.

The proposal considered Wednesday would also add 215 elementary school teachers, 406 early childhood educators, and lunchroom supervisors equal to approximately 50 full-time positions.

In a document released to media before the meeting, Trustee Chris Glover said that the budget shortfall amount continues to change depending on funding from the provincial government, making the budget process difficult.

"It is impossible to plan our budget when the province keeps moving the goal posts," he said in the statement.

For example, when he was elected in 2010, Glover said the budget shortfall amount was listed at $33 million. That number was up to $85 million in September and now sits at approximately $110 million after last week's provincial budget, he said.

Glover questioned whether full-day kindergarten was the best decision when it means the board has to cut secretaries, vice-principals, caretakers and high-school teachers in order to pay for it.

The proposed staff cuts will cover approximately $50 million of the budget shortfall.

The board is required, by law, to balance its budget. Failure to do so would result in the board being taken over by a provincial body.

With files from CTV New's Ashley Rowe and John Musselman