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If 6,400 teachers lose their jobs to help balance the city's budget, PS 277 teacher Jessica Stillman will be among the first to go.

"They are looking to cut teachers to save money and unfortunately, that would be me," Stillman said.

That's because Stillman was the most recent teacher hired at PS 277 and according to union rules she'll get her pink slip first, even though her principal says she's doing an excellent job.

"There are always going to be some teachers better than others, but unfortunately at the moment the way our contracts and the state law reads, if we laid off it would have to be last in, first out," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"I think it is really unfortunate under the current rules to lay them off by seniority. I think there are better ways to do it," said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Teacher's Union president Michael Mulgrew says he's willing to help the city, but the focus shouldn't be on who the teachers are but on what they do.

"You're talking about after school programs, art, music, Saturday tutoring, academic intervention. All of that is going to be cut. It's not just teacher layoffs. We're talking about catastrophic cuts to our school system that we haven't seen since 1976," Mulgrew said.

Half of the Department of Education's $22 billion budget comes from the state. And with the state budget more than a month overdue, the DOE is left in limbo. As a result, the mayor says the city may have to layoff teachers before Albany even decides how much money the schools will get.

Also, if the state somehow finds the cash after pink slips have gone out, Bloomberg says it will be too late to rehire the teachers.

"At some point, we are going to have to tell them, this is the amount of money you are getting, and if more comes in, I am not even sure we'd use it that way," Bloomberg said.

This all means class sizes will continue to rise next year by at least two to three students per class and almost all teachers hired since 2007 will be let go.

"It breaks my heart. The reason for the turnaround of the school is that we were able to hire extraordinarily smart, passionate, committed teachers," said PS 277 Principal Cheryl Tyler.

While there are still a lot of variables at play which will affect how many teachers will be laid off, which ones, and when, the word from City Hall is there will be fewer teachers in city schools.