Before a single number was crunched on their 2010-11 budgets, Chautauqua County school districts had conflicting sets of marching orders.

With local taxpayers crying out for tax relief, area school districts found out in January they would lose an average of $500,000 a year, according to the state School Boards Association, in state aid as part of Gov. David Paterson’s attempt to balance the state budget.

In the months since, state leaders have advocated for aid to be restored to schools; for all of the state’s union workers, including teachers, to freeze their wages; and an outcry from residents for school boards to reevaluate how their money is being spent…

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