BUFFALO, N.Y. — A handful of teachers at City Honors School in Buffalo will be out of a job as of February 27, unless an 11th hour deal can be reached to save them.

Positions include those in music, math, ELA, instructional coaching and guidance.

District leaders say the school was forced to make the cuts after an arbitrator upheld a former ruling teachers at City Honors did not have to perform non-teaching duties like cafeteria or study hall duty.

The district has now assigned 16 aides to cover those duties in order to maintain a balanced building-based budget without impacting student's graduation and regents requirements.

The Buffalo Teacher's Federation says the district recently rejected its latest offer to work with an outside mediator, as well as put litigation and the cuts on hold. 

Federation leaders say the district doesn't need 16 aides and could easily fund less, as in years past, had they built it in their budget.

District leaders say the Federation's offer was moot, as it was too late for a mediator because the district already implemented the arbitrator's plan and notified staff of the changes.

"They're going to punish the teachers and students at the school. How pathetic is that? Ultimately we'll be forced to go into court and get a temporary restraining order against the district for doing this," said Philip Rumore, Buffalo Teachers Federation president.

"The district doesn't want to see anything cut. And neither does the principal or the administration. We're still hoping that things could get resolved through some negotiation. We never felt that negotiations are off. And continuing the dialogue is the most important piece here," said Sabatino Cimato, BPS School Leadership associate superintendent.

City Honors is hosting a community dialogue on the issue sometime early next week.