School officials continue to prepare for a major hit when it comes to state funding as they wait for Gov. Rick Snyder to expand on his plan for education in April.

Snyder announced his budget proposal last month, sending shockwaves through school districts all over the state. Additional cuts to state funding per pupil, combined with rising retirement and insurance costs, are forcing cuts into the millions of dollars for districts like Niles Community Schools.

During a meeting of the Niles Community Schools board of education, Superintendent Richard Weigel told his board that reviewing the governor’s proposed budget revealed a few additional losses in revenue.

Districts experiencing a decline in enrollment that receive funding would no longer receive those dollars, he said, which adds to the cuts they’ll need to make for next year.

Cuts teachers hope they won’t bear the brunt of.

“It’s always laying off teachers,” said Andy Roberts, president of the Niles Community Schools teachers’ union. “It’s always laying off teachers and it’s never laying off administrators.

“Last year I feel we took our fair share,” Roberts said. “We shared in that responsibility.”

What he’s referring to is the freeze in salary district teachers took along with other concessions agreed upon after several rounds of tense negotiations with district officials.

Now with an estimated $3 million needing to be shed from the district’s budget in the coming year, the fear is the district could try “to balance the budget on the back of the teaching staff.”

Currently, Roberts said the union is working on a list of cost-saving measures to present to district officials.

“A list that doesn’t affect the classroom,” Roberts added.

It would seem Roberts and Weigel do agree on the importance of attracting new students to the district.

That’s one of the outcomes the superintendent hopes to see with the creation of the New Tech Entrepreneurial Academy, the addition of all-day kindergarten and new options in learning at the high school level.

“I think we have to find ways to attract students back into the district,” Roberts said. “We have to find new and inventive ways to fill holes in our budget.”

Teachers are definitely talking about the looming cuts, and Roberts said there’s been a lot of “chit-chat” in the hallways.

“A lot of people are bending my ear,” he said. “Sure, people are worried. It’s their livelihood.”