Mayoral control of the city's public school system may expire Wednesday, as a group of Democratic state senators proposed today that the divided legislative body only meet to vote on "noncontroversial" bills.

Claiming that they want to set aside questions of leadership questions until next month, the group of Democrats said they wanted the divided State Senate to meet at noon tomorrow to vote on nine bills that would provide the state with $7.2 billion in federal and stimulus spending.

They also proposed that the Senate meeting have rotating leadership.

"It's not about June 8, It's about June 30. That's what's important," said Democratic State Senator John Sampson, citing first the date that 30 Republicans and two Democrats voted to change the Senate's leadership, and then the deadline of action for many Senate bills.

"Enough is enough. Let's get back to work," said Bronx Senator Jeffrey Klein. "We need to stop arguing about who's in charge. What we need to do is do legislation we can all agree upon."

The nine bills proposed by the Democrats concern health care, child care, jobs and education.

The controversial bill for gay marriage was not mentioned in today's Democratic press conference.

Unless mayoral control is renewed by midnight Tuesday, the city will revert to the disbanded Board of Education system.

Both Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned yesterday that inaction would be devastating.

Opponents of mayoral control say the system does not give parents with enough input.

The State Assembly passed a version of mayoral control earlier this month that the mayor says does give parents a greater role.

As the Democrats held the press conference, the Republicans quickly gaveled in and out of session in the Senate.

Meanwhile, a judge is hearing arguments in a lawsuit brought by Governor David Paterson to force the Senate to convene and vote.

Paterson claims that the special sessions being held on his orders are not valid under state law, since all 62 senators have not convened at the same time.

There are also questions over the legality of the sessions because the State Assembly has not been present.

Democrats and Republicans have taken the Senate floor separately for six special sessions, but have only gaveled in and gaveled out without acting on any legislation.

The governor met with Democrats during a closed-door session last night, but said the meeting did not result in a solution to the power-sharing struggle that has lasted since the June 8 vote to overthrow Senator Malcolm Smith as majority leader.

Republicans and Democrats previously sued over the contested vote but a state judge refused to rule on the matter and asked legislators to settle the matter among themselves.

The governor says he will continue calling senators back into special sessions until they tackle important legislation still on the table, including mayoral control of city public schools.