BATON ROUGE - Some teachers and school employees were told that they may need to leave their current job and teach at other schools in the East Baton Rouge School District. 

Along with the teachers, parents like Marcy Whitney say they were caught off guard. 

"This blindsided everyone, so how can this decision be made by one of even a few people?" Whitney said. 

Thursday, a job fair took place at Liberty High School to help teachers and employees find a new job within the school system.

Madelon Kelly teaches at Glasgow Middle School, and she also coaches the Science Olympiad team.   

She was told Thursday that she had to attend the fair because she had to leave Glasgow. She said she was so emotional, she had to leave school early because she couldn't stop crying.

"I went in to the job fair to register because someone told me to register, and I told them, 'I just want my old job,' and she said, 'That's not going to happen,'" Kelly said. 

Sito Narcisse is the Superintendent of East Baton Rouge Schools. He explained in a news conference Thursday why these job changes are happening.

A lot of it has to do with vacancies within the school system. He says this is a way to solve that problem.

"Historically, there have been schools in our school district that have been overstaffed and schools that have not had enough staff; they have chronic vacancies, and so what I am trying to do is balance the district," Narcisse said.

He also understands why some people are upset, but he says this has to happen to keep schools operating as well as possible.

"We have to make change and balance our district. I know some teachers may be at a particular school, but the reality is you're in East Baton Rouge, and all the teachers can be at any school in EBR. All the children in EBR count," Narcisse said.

East Baton Rouge Schools say all the teachers who had their job moved will be assigned a new job by Friday.