After countless kids of all ages trick-or-treat their way through the weekend, odds are the Halloween decorations will come down in classrooms throughout the area and teachers will be busy putting up paper pilgrims and turkeys.

But as another election passes, as the holiday season and winter break descends on Niles area students, many teachers and school officials may be wondering just what to thank their state legislators for.

“The funding for the 2011-2012 school year does not look very positive,” said Niles Community Schools Superintendent Richard Weigel. “Everything is speculation, but the word that we have received is that there could be difficult times ahead.”

According to the district’s director of business and finance, Tom Skarbek, the district received a $154 cut in state funding per pupil in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school year.

That number could inflate to $250 less per pupil in the 2011-2012 school year, he said.

“That’s what makes it so crazy. It’s hard to budget when you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s hard to gauge a budget when you don’t know.”

Gov. Granholm vetoed last month a portion of the Edu Jobs funding, which would have distributed more than $300 million to districts statewide — districts still suffering from decreases in state funding and cuts to their budgets.

Money from that fund is still expected to funnel its way to school districts, but it’s unclear as to when.

“We’re still going to get the money,” Weigel said. “It’s just, ‘What is the allocation formula going to be?’ We’re still waiting to hear exactly how and exactly how much.”

The fact is, for many districts, every little bit helps.

But it’s not enough to keep districts from checking and rechecking their budgets every day.

“We’re constantly checking the budget numbers,” Skarbek said. “We were hit with our retirement rate going up over 20 percent. That was an extra $160,000 into the budget that we didn’t expect, that we have to account for now.”

“There is not enough being done to fix the funding mechanism,” said Weigel. “There have been opportunities … the additional American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding that the state used to plug what they say were spending gaps. During that time it would have been helpful to have at least a committee looking at the funding mechanism for schools with the understanding that there would be tougher times coming along.”

It seems as though legislators who have been focused on the polls as of late will have to keep active in education, as the issue affects their constituents.

“Everything is going to be on hold until after the election,” John Jarpe, superintendent of Brandywine Community Schools, said. “What I would hope is they protect the school aid fund … If they can keep from raiding that or taking that money and shifting it to other parts of the budget,” there would be one less worry on the minds of school officials.

One less, but just one of many.

“The bottom line is we’re here to educate the children to the highest level and degree of their ability, to prepare them for the 21st century, to prepare them to be competitive in a world economy and we need the people, the processes and the support to get that done,” Weigel said.