Famularo explained that the Bellmore district received a letter from Davis, dated Jan. 2, stating that Cuomo had signed the bill allowing the exemptions. On Jan. 8, Famularo said, an email was sent to all Nassau County school district business officials from Deputy Assessor Michele D. Wawrzynski, which said that a resolution must be transmitted to the Department of Assessment no later than March 15 to be effective for the 2014-15 school year. At no time before April 1 were district officials informed that the actual deadline was Jan. 2, Famularo noted.

“This delay in offering the tax exemption is the direct result of the untimely notification and inaccurate correspondence from the county assessor’s office …,” he said. “We recognize and appreciate the veterans who have served to defend and protect our country, and we are very disappointed to learn of the delay.”

Mark Schissler, North Bellmore’s assistant superintendent for business, said that officials in his district also thought the deadline was March 15. He said he thinks that county officials truly believed that that as well, until they were told otherwise by the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

“I think they were acting in good faith,” Schissler said of county officials. “They didn’t know that the deadline was Jan. 2, so there’s not a school district in Nassau County that passed it on time.”

In his April 1 letter, Davis wrote that the state Department of Taxation and Finance ruled that the county must use the Jan. 2 deadline. But Geoffrey Gloak, a Department of Taxation and Finance spokesman, said this was not true.

Gloak said his department recommended that municipalities use their “taxable status date” — Nassau County’s is Jan. 2 — as the deadline for school boards to opt in. But Gloak stressed that this was only a recommendation.

“That’s not binding on the school districts,” he said. “If they can work it out with the county that they want to opt in after that date, that’s fine.”