More than three dozen school district leaders in Wayne County, the Finger Lakes and Genesee Valley have released a letter they wrote to Governor Cuomo looking for help with what they are calling a crisis involving school funding.
The district superintendents say they face a perfect storm that includes the two percent property tax cap and a proposed tax rebate plan.
Gananda School Superintendent Shawn Van Scoy says his district has already made a lot of cuts.
"We're trying to save, we've eliminated staff, we've eliminated over 27 positions in the Gananda School Districtt. So, we're trying very hard to find all those efficiencies, additional efficiencies, but we're at the end. The next step calls for us to eliminate real programs for kids, so we're trying to avoid doing that.”
Van Scoy says the school officials are especially concerned about something called the Gap Elimination Adjustment. That was a move taken by the state a few years ago to close the state's budget gap by partially reducing state funding for schools. But the district officials say now with a balanced budget, Governor Cuomo should end that special adjustment.
