The Garden City School District is expected to receive $85,000 in state aid for the 2012-13 school year, which represents an increase of 1.9 percent over the previous year, announced Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen at the January 18th meeting of the Garden City Board of Education.

“We’re happy that we got a few bucks more,” Dr. Feirsen said. “In previous years we were cut significantly in state aid. So are we happy that we didn’t get cut more? I guess so. It’s not a windfall and it’s not a tremendous shot in the arm for our revenues, but it’s something.”

Dr. Feirsen said he and Albert T. Chase, assistant superintendent for business and finance, went from “great elation to tremendous disappointment” in 90 seconds after first seeing a substantial increase in aid of $353,000, and then quickly realizing the number did not take into account $267,000 in highcost special education aid and private excess cost aid. Private excess cost aid is claimed for public school special education students attending private schools such as AHRC Nassau.

Chase explained that the base year was set at zero and did not include roughly $160,000 in high cost aid and $110,000 in private excess cost aid. The state education department constructs its database on November 15 and Pupil Personnel Services had not yet filed the necessary forms to receive these aid compensations. The $85,000 is on par with what other Nassau County school districts of similar caliber are expecting to receive from the state.

Chase emphasized that PPS was not late in its filing, and that many school districts are experiencing a similar issue.

School Board President Colleen E. Foley said school board members were receiving telephone calls from residents who saw the article in Newsday which listed aid for Garden City to be $290,039, an increase of 7.48 percent. Chase explained that the newspaper was printing numbers provided by the State Education Department, so they had no way of knowing the number was incorrect.

Dr. Feirsen complimented the state Legislature for quickly releasing state aid estimates on the same day the governor gave his budget address. He said there is usually a lag of at least one or more weeks.