This is the fifth year that public schools have had their budgets cut and principals across the city are pushing back, saying the money the Department of Education has given them this year will not cover basic services, like a teachers in each classroom.

NY1 learned on Friday that 253 schools -- approximately 16 percent of schools -- officially appealed their budgets this year.

That is a more than 50-percent increase from the 166 schools that appealed their budgets last year.

NY1 spoke with principals when their budgets were due in mid-July and heard many did not even know they could appeal their budgets until they were forced to figure it out.

"It was something that I just first heard of this year. This is, I guess, my 11th year at P.S. 3 and I've had budgets that were difficult to make but if you were creative, you could always manage it," said P.S. 3 Principal Lisa Siegman. "But this year I looked at it and my budget liaison looked at it and we knew something had to happen and she suggested we appeal."

Many principals may have good cause to appeal, as the Department of Education granted two-thirds of the appeals last year, at least in part.

The DOE is still going through this year's appeals, but a spokesperson said the department will have made final decisions by next Friday.

That does not give principals a lot of time to plan, so for a lot of schools, major decisions like staffing still hang in the balance.

School budgets were due on July 15, but there is still very little public information on how principals worked the numbers this year. In the past few years, many principals have had to cut teaching positions.

By late Friday, NY1 was waiting to find out how many teaching positions have been cut from schools this year.

The station has learned at least 50 schools have expressed interest in a new teacher sharing program, where two or more schools would share the cost and the use of a single teacher.