MASSENA - Massena Central School will see a $637,145 or a 4.09 percent increase in aid for the 2013-14 school year.

Those numbers differ from $1,005,060 or 4.89 percent increase reported in the governor’s budget.

The difference explains Massena Superintendent of Schools Roger B. Clough II is the way the numbers are reported.

“It’s true the district will receive more than $1,000,000 dollars from the state, but what is deceiving is that more than $350,000 of that is reimbursement for expenses we paid last year,” he said.

Clough explains that districts receive two types of aid. One reimburses the district for previous year’s expenses such as BOCES costs, extraordinary special education costs and transportation costs. The second type of aid is the aid for the coming year.

Lumping the two types of aid together makes any increase look bigger than it actually is.

“Don’t get me wrong; we’re pleased for any increase in this economic climate,” he said.

“We just don’t want people thinking we received more than we did or that this solves our district’s budget concerns. At the end of the day, we still have an approximate $5.5 million gap between the governor’s promised revenues and our projected expenses.”

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