As lawmakers handed down the state's largest-ever increase in school aid when they passed the budget last week, the Farmingdale School District fared better than expected under the governor's original proposal. Just how much better, however, depends on how one looks at the numbers.

The state budget, which was finally passed three months after deadline, increased overall funding to schools by $913 million, or 7.7 percent, over the 1998-99 school year. The budget proposed by Governor George Pataki in January called for a much smaller increase of $154 million.

Under the governor's proposal, Farmingdale had been slated to receive about $15.09 million. With the final budget just approved, the state has reported that the district will receive $16.2 million, which represents an increase of 12.86 percent over last year.

However, according to Dr. William J. Fanning, assistant superintendent for business for Farmingdale Schools, the district expects to actually receive a much smaller increase than that.

This, he said, is because most of that increase is accounted for by a large boost in BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) aid, much of which he believes is an error in calculation. The aid for BOCES services, Fanning noted, is $1.72 million, an increase of $873,395 over last year. He believes this is an error, because the amount of BOCES aid is based on how much a district spends on its services, and this has not changed.

"They doubled the estimate of our BOCES aid, and our BOCES aid will not double. In fact, it's likely to be exactly what it was last year," said Fanning. "They didn't change the formula, and our planned expenditures haven't changed substantially, so where they got the $1.7 million - I don't know. And I have spoken with other districts who have found that their BOCES aid estimate was way off. So that number - $1,723,013 - is never going to happen. That's an error they made. We don't know where they got the number. We're trying to find out."

Fanning also doesn't expect to receive funding slated to the district for Ladder programs. This aid would cover only part of the cost of the programs, which include universal pre-kindergarten and class-size reduction inititiatives. To receive the money, the district would have to pay for most of the cost of the programs out of pocket. Because of the high cost, Fanning does not expect the district to participate in the Ladder programs, and therefore to not receive the aid. Because of this, Fanning discounted another $115,000 that the state has reported the district will receive.

With these adjustments made, the assistant superintendent has estimated that Farmingdale will actually receive about $15.2 million in state aid, which is $110,000 more than the amount originally recommended by the governor.

As of press time, Farmingdale School District officials were in the midst of calculating the effect of the final aid figure on the tax levy.

Assemblyman Steve Labriola (12th Assembly District), who is among those legislators who lobbied on behalf of Farmingdale for state aid, said that he was pleased with the record increase in school funding, although he noted, "Certainly as a Long Island legislator, I would like to see Long Island get more."

He added, "I am confident that the superintendent, Gerry Dempsey, is going to spend this money in the best interests of the children of Farmingdale, because that school district never ceases to amaze me as far as how ahead of the curve they are," noting that Farmingdale has been innovative in dealing with such challenges as a high English-as-a-Second-Language population.

As for the apparent error in the BOCES aid figure, Labriola said that the increase is accounted for by the full restoration of BOCES aid, which local districts had lobbied for after the governor had recommended changes in the aid formula. The budget passed by the Legislature provides an increase of $115.48 million for BOCES aid, representing a full restoration of the governor's proposed 25 percent reduction.

Editors Note: State aid figures do not include funding for building and transportation, because these are reimbursed based on the amount of money spent by each district.