Making a budget can be difficult, especially when you don’t know how much money you have to work with, but that's the reality for local school districts.
The state has frozen foundation aid, which means districts are seeing less funding than originally expected. North Colonie hopes to make up for it without cutting employees.
"It is a unique and ever-changing situation, so we have to accept that fact," said D. Joseph Corr, the superintendent of North Colonie Central Schools.
Troy's district expects to lose almost $3 million. The district says it spent the last two and a half weeks to create a plan on how to address the gap. It's proposing to cut 23 reading teachers.
"Seeing them all in front of me and talking directly to them, it crushes you. It crushes your spirit and it’s literally heartbreaking," said John Carmello, the Troy City School District superintendent, when asked about telling the news to teachers.
More cuts may come in the future. The state expects to have several evaluation periods, which means if revenue doesn't come in, districts may have to make additional changes during the school year.
"The governor seems pretty certain over the weekend that some more cuts are coming, so we might not be out of the woods, and yeah, that is definitely the scariest part," said Carmello.
"We have to plan for some of the worst-case scenarios and then hope that they don’t materialize," said Corr.
Districts say their priority is to give an excellent education to their students. They expect to make additional changes to proposed budgets in the coming weeks.