ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As the Rochester City School District works to close a nearly $52 million budget gap, plans are in place to handle the increase in student enrollment, as well as improve graduation rates. Here are the three major points from Tuesday night's budget proposal:

— Improve Graduation Rates

When it comes to graduation rates in Rochester, the school superintendent says they're on the right track: It has inched up over 4 percent year to year.

"And that track frankly is looking at every student by face and name, making sure we understand how many credits students have, what their strengths are, what they're needs are," said RCSD Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams.

Rochester remains dead last among the state's five biggest districts in its graduation rate

— Accommodating Puerto Rican Students Post Maria.

The district is working to accommodate hundreds of students who arrived in Rochester from Puerto Rico after fleeing from Hurricane Maria. The budget would add more than100 teaching positions. 

"I think the largest number are bilingual teachers to meet the new need for additional teachers for students who came here from Puerto Rico, there will be an addition also in English as a second language, special education teachers, behavioral specialists, and social and emotional support teachers," said Adam Urbanski, Rochester Teachers Association President.

Urbanski admits that the additional students mean an extra strain on the budget, but says it's better than the alternative.

"It would be worse not to budget for them," he said. "These are very vulnerable families and very vulnerable students and if this district managed to provide for them and still erase the deficit, I'll be impressed."

— Increased State Aid

In an effort to help close the gap, district leaders attended the Big Five lobby day last month in Albany, looking for an increase in aid.

"They told us basically around about where we could be because this year the intitial budget gave us a 1.5 percent increase, and the plan is that schools would get somewhere between 3, 3.2 or 3.5 percent," said Everton Sewell, Chief Financial Officer.

Public hearings are set for next month before the school board votes on a final version in May.