Representatives from Gov. Linda Lingle's administration are expected to discuss the use of federal stimulus money with Board of Education members Thursday during a special meeting of the board.

A request came yesterday from Lingle's office for an opportunity to discuss the recent dispute between the governor and the DOE over the use of federal money originally intended to be used for education.

The governor announced on Wednesday that she intends to close a $90 million budget deficit by restricting public school funds in anticipation that federal stimulus money could replace it. The plan set off several days of acrimony between Lingle's administration and Superintendent Pat Hamamoto.

"The governor wants to explain the facts to the board," said her spokesman Russell Pang. "There seems to be some misunderstanding and the governor wanted to explain it to the board."

The presentation is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the board meeting room at the Queen Lili'uokalani Building on Miller Street. It will follow the board's regularly scheduled 3:30 p.m. meeting and will be open to the public.

The special meeting was originally called to address the public school system's mathematics achievement gap, said Garrett Toguchi, BOE chairman.

Then, "We got a call sometime late this morning, early afternoon from someone from (Lingle's senior adviser) Linda Smith's office asking if they could come and do a presentation to the full board. We said, yes, come," Toguchi said.

"We'll see what happens."

Toguchi said Smith and an official from the state Department of Budget and Finance will attend the meeting.

Hamamoto is also expected to make a presentation to board members at the meeting, Toguchi said.

BOE members had harsh words for the governor this week in regard to her plan to restrict the public education system's current budget by $90 million in anticipation of federal stimulus money.

The board, meanwhile, had planned to use the federal stabilization money to offset some $86.6 million in pending and potential state budget cuts in the two-year budget cycle.

Toguchi said board members believe that the stabilization funds were intended to be used for education and not to close the state's budget deficit.