By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

The Nebraska Legislature gave LB988, the state aid bill, second-round approval Thursday, cutting another $11 million from the total to be distributed to local school districts.

State aid was certified to school districts Feb. 1.

But with lawmakers believing that state revenues will decrease substantially this year, they have been working on a revised state aid bill, LB988. That proposal originally cut $66 million from the amount aid to local schools was set to increase.

Despite that cut, aid to the Grand Island school district went up by about $100,000 from the Feb. 1 "certified" figure. Aid to the Northwest school system dropped about $1 million from its Feb. 1 "certified" figure.

The additional $11 million cut was tougher on the Grand Island school district. Business manager Virgil Harden said Grand Island lost the $100,000 increase from the first round, plus another $900,000 from the Feb. 1 "certified figure."

Still, Grand Island came out pretty well.

Instead of getting the increase of $5.2 million that was certified on Feb. 1, Grand Island still will get an increase of $4.3 million in state aid for the coming school year. He noted that is still a 13.5 percent increase in state aid from the previous year.

Harden said that will allow the district to address the issues of students living in poverty and students who are learning English as their second language, as well as address other needs for the district.

During first-round approval of LB988, the Northwest school system lost a little more than $1 million from the figure that was certified to the district on Feb. 1. At the time, Superintendent Bill Mowinkel said that represented about a $150,000 decrease over what the district had received the previous year.

Mowinkel said that sent Northwest's aid from a 16.25 percent increase from the previous year to a 2.89 percent decrease.

On Friday, Northwest business manager Sharon Placke said Northwest's aid declined another $59,000 as a result of the Legislature's second round approval of LB988. She said that puts the total decrease from the figure "certified" on Feb. 1 at $1.079 million. She said the total decrease from the previous year's state aid is $209,000, or 3.9 percent.

She said last year's state aid was a little more than $5.3 million, but will be $5.1 million for the coming year.

Placke said it's too early to tell how Northwest will deal with going from an anticipated 16.25 increase in state aid to a 3.9 percent decrease.

Both Harden and Placke said they've been told no further changes can be made between the second and third reading of the bill, which would represent final passage. That means both school districts should now know their state aid figures for the coming budget year.