The federal government has threatened to pull some of New York's Race to the Top funding after several school districts failed to create a new reform plan on time. Now the governor wants to come up with a statewide model, but as our Brian Dwyer reports, one North Country lawmaker says there is still time for local districts to work out their own plan.

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WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- Race to the Top was supposed to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars for New York State education in exchange for reform, specifically teacher evaluations.

But 10 districts failed to submit their plans before the December 31st deadline and now that money is being threatened.

Some in the state say they'd like to see the districts, unions and lawmakers come up with a statewide plan that could serve as a model for all its districts. A plan North Country Assemblywoman Addie Russell disagrees with.

"I think that having the local school district fashion and work with the teachers to fashion a system is the more appropriate way to do it in the state," Russell said.

And even though Governor Cuomo is pushing all parties to do something and to do it fast, Russell is confident the districts will finalize their reform plans soon and save the money. And she's hopeful when that happens, it'll squash the ideas of a statewide model, saying district issues aren't the same everywhere and often teachers have a lot more to deal with than straight xs and os.

"There are teachers that are going to have student populations that are more challenging. I air on the side of allowing the local school communities to determine these types of issues," said Russell.

And Russell says she has a plan to not only better understand those issues and relay them to colleagues, but at the same time, helps students get more involved on the political side. She's calling it a student cabinet. Her office is accepting applications from students in grades seven through 12 to do a sort of internship through her office.

"I’m not just looking for students that are on the honor roll or are in student council type organizations. I'm looking for students that have different experiences," said Russell.

Russell has meetings planned on the student cabinet in both February and March.