School districts plan to appeal judgement on Brooks' F.A.I.R. Plan

They may be down but don’t count them out. “We still think there are questions to be answered that were voiced in the lawsuit that the school districts pout together and that merit further review,” said Executive Director of the Monroe County School Boards Association Jody Seigle.

Seigle says they're taking the battle over the County Executive Maggie Brooks' F.A.I.R. Plan to a state Appeals Court. The move comes after a state Supreme Court judge ruled on Monday the plan is legal.

"The 24 districts will appeal the ruling of the lawsuit Monroe County Public School Districts versus Wayne E. Zyra to the Appellate Court," said Seigle.

"I beleive it is the right plan. I think the court decision validates our opinion that the F.A.I.R. Plan is sound legally and that it does protect our sharing partners going forward," said Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.

Brooks applauds the judges decision. The County Executive says she understands that schools will lose some revenue but she says everyone has to bear some pain to keep the county fiscally afloat. "We're asking the school districts you are going to be impacted to a certain degree, lets look at how we can reduce costs to accommodate the impact versus raising property taxes which clearly is not a popular thing to do in this community," said Brooks.

But the F.A.I.R. Plan is even less popular in the school districts where officials like Brockport Schools Superintendent Jim Fallon says its the students who could ultimately pay the price. "The greatest ramifications will be as we develop our budget for 07-08 that's going to be the issue, because we're trying to do things now to get us through this mess and we've kept it away from the classroom. But I'm sure next year it will hit the classroom there will be ramifications for our districts," said Fallon.