Non-union CPS employees will have to take six unpaid furlough days this year, according to an internal CPS memo.

The staffing reductions come after Mayor Richard M. Daley earlier this week urged the city’s sister agencies to make such reductions. CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond confirmed that the July 28 memo came from CPS Chief Ron Huberman.

The furlough days mean that an unspecified number of "non-union central office and citywide employees" will take Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, two days at Thanksgiving and Christmas Day without pay, the memo says.

The memo also indicates that the cuts the Illinois State Board of Education made last week mean CPS will have to cut $80 million out of its budget. (Bond puts the cuts at $84 million.) In a news release yesterday, CPS gave some broad indications of what might be cut: early childhood education, bilingual education and reading initiatives, the news release said.

Huberman’s memo sketches out some other cutbacks. An ongoing hiring freeze will continue, Huberman writes, and “the bar will be raised on which essential positions will be opened (for hiring).”

The memo does not provide any specifics of what other cuts might be in store for the district, though Huberman emphasizes the need to “protect student-focused areas like classroom size, facilities maintenance and student support programs.”

But that doesn’t mean classroom programs will be spared.

From the news release: “Over the next few weeks, CPS officials will be reviewing both classroom and non-classroom-based programs and staff.”

And lastly, a blush of humanity in the midst of uncertain times:

“I recognize that these decisions have a direct impact on your employees and will result in hardship in an already difficult economic environment,” Huberman writes.