Trying to salvage his reforms in the face of steep new citywide budget cuts, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has summoned nearly 200 principals to cost-cutting meetings this week and next.
Klein is also reaching out to elected parent boards around the city for guidance, officials said.
"We're asking them to think about what services they value the most," said Kathleen Grimm, deputy chancellor for finance.
Most of Klein's major reforms - from a new school-funding formula that redistributes resources, to a major initiative giving principals more money for their schools in exchange for higher consequences if they fail to raise test scores - require significant funds.
Without the additional funding, both supporters and critics say they wonder what's left.
"They've created a system that says we're going to give the principal a budget and hold them accountable to a new set of requirements, but if you take out the budget, you're taking out one of the three legs of the stool," said teachers union President Randi Weingarten, whose organization is part of a coalition that opposes budget cuts.
Grimm said every effort will be made to protect the reforms.
"We're going to make them paramount....That doesn't mean that we might not have to retrench in certain areas."
School officials say privately that there are not many places in the central budget that could be trimmed and schools will likely have to share the pain.
On top of that, principals were forced to cancel tutoring and after-school programs last month when the current year's budget was cut.
Klein acknowledged that he may consider taking money from some schools to give it to others according to a formula he created that determines how much each school needs.
Last year, he told unions and other community groups that he wouldn't fully execute the formula until next year but, when asked about that promise last week, he said, "I'm going to look at all of my options."
Weingarten said she has a written contract barring the chancellor from redistributing school budgets until next year and that she'll sue to enforce it if necessary.
