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A preliminary printout of new state aid numbers shows the Grand Island school district will receive almost an additional $150,000 even though overall aid for Nebraska schools was sliced by $66 million.
Among the school districts that would get less money are the Northwest school system, which would receive approximately $1 million less than originally thought.
State aid was supposed to be certified to all Nebraska school districts on Feb. 1, but projections of lower tax receipts caused all the numbers to be revised.
None are final until approved by Nebraska lawmakers, although LB988 has been voted out of the Education Committee.
Grand Island Superintendent Steve Joel said the city school district apparently received more money because the revised state aid figures preserved the poverty portion of the formula for distributing money to schools.
Grand Island school district business manager Virgil Harden said the formula also preserved the money for educating students who are learning English as a second language.
Another part of the formula is called the teacher education adjustment and it rewarded Grand Island for the number of teachers with master's degrees, Harden said.
A very big change in the proposed LB988 is the expenditure lid. Previously, school districts were limited to specified increases based on previous patterns of spending.
Harden said that Grand Island total state aid was initially supposed to be at $38.9 million, a $5.25 million increase. Now, it is supposed to be just over $39 million, an increase of just over $5.38 million.
Harden said that means Grand Island state aid went from a 15.6 percent increase to a 16.9 percent increase.
Grand Island school district officials have long contended that that penalized the school district, because when that statute first became law, the district did not take advantage of the additional 1 percent spending authority.
That makes Grand Island school officials excited about the proposed changes.
Northwest Superintendent Bill Mowinkel had a different reaction.
"I'm not excited at all," he said.
On Feb. 1, Northwest's state aid was supposed to increase by about $869,000 to $6.22 million. After the revisions for 2008-09, Northwest will receive $150,000 less, pushing its state aid down to $5.199 million.
He said that swings from a 16.25 percent increase to a 2.89 percent decrease.
Mowinkel said a 16.25 percent increase might seem hard to justify, but he added that so is a 2.89 percent decrease when Northwest's "general fund levy sits higher than a lot of school districts out there."
Mowinkel said the LB988 was originally scheduled to go into effect in 2009-10, but was pushed up a year because of the Forecasting Board's prediction of significantly lower tax receipts.
Mowinkel said portions of the bill still could be changed, which would affect how much Northwest and other school districts actually receive. Joel also said he believes that LB988 "will be tweaked" some more before eventual passage.
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