Board Seeks Grants for Low-Achieving Schools (IA)

May 14, 2010

A flood of new federal funds may be coming to Waterloo Community Schools, but officials aren’t yet sure if they want all of it.

The Board of Education Monday unanimously approved submitting an application for federal school improvement funds to pay for initiatives at two schools designated as persistently lowest achieving. Lincoln Elementary and George Washington Carver Academy are each eligible for up to $2 million to implement a longer school day and year, curriculum and teaching changes supported by intensive training, and tying evaluation and pay incentives to student growth.

In a 5-1 vote, the board also approved submitting an application for Iowa’s Race to the Top grant – with a long list of conditions. That follows a first round of grants in January for which the district chose not to submit an application. States are participating in a competitive process to win federal funds targeting specific reforms.

Superintendent Gary Norris said officials from the Urban Education Network, consisting of the eight largest school districts in the state, held a conference call Friday and collect ively decided to recommend that their boards submit the applications.

He said "the biggest compelling reason" to do that was because many of the districts are increasing taxes in 2010-11. The network superintendents reasoned it could be hard to defend not seeking the grants, said Norris. Another condition of the support is that the districts will not have to pick one of four U.S. Department of Education reform models – as the district had to do in applying for the persistently lowest achieving schools money. Norris’ recommendation included eight conditions for the district’s support.

Board member Lyle Schmitt voted against making the application while board member Bernice Richard was absent.

"I challenge the whole construct of Race to the Top," Schmitt said. He noted that the federal education department picks "winners and losers," sending a "fraction" of the money they get from states back to them. By the time a school district gets any, he contends, "it has so many strings attached to it, it’s not worth it."

Iowa is applying for a $175 million grant. If the state wins the funding, 50 percent of it will go directly to participating districts. Additional funds will be made available to districts through sub-grants of the state’s portion of the money.

In contrast to some hesitation about Race to the Top funds, the district is moving ahead with plans to implement the "transformation" reform model at the two persistently lowest achieving schools. A new principal has been assigned to Lincoln, which was required in that case, and teachers have been given the opportunity to transfer if they wouldn’t be a good fit for the planned changes. Nearly half of Lincoln’s teach ing staff will be different next fall as a result of the transfers.

"It’s not going to be easy," Norris said of the changes. "It’s going to take dedicated staff members that are already working hard." The district will find out June 4 how much money Carver and Lincoln will qualify for.