Grants Help Teachers Keep Jobs (MN)

September 9, 2010

More Austin Public School teachers willkeep their jobs next year thanks to an estimated $1 million dollars in federalaid from the Education Jobs Fund.

According to Mark Stotts, thedistrict’s finance and operations director, Austin Public Schools was notifiedlast week it would receive funding from the Education Jobs Fund, a one-timefederal program signed into law in August with the intent of maintaining andcreating education jobs for the 2010-11 school year.

The incoming aid helps ease thedistrict’s projected $1 to 1.5 million deficit for next year, acting as aninsurance against possible job cuts in the immediate future.

"We can use that money to pay forstaff that otherwise would have been cut from our budget," Stotts said.

That means that teachers’ salaries thatwould normally come out of the district’s general fund will be covered byfederal aid, which balances the projected budget deficit for next year.

The federal aid assigned to AustinPublic Schools is part of $167 million the state of Minnesota applied for fromthe Education Jobs Fund, which allocated $10 billion in state educationassistance. Ninety percent of the money will be divied out this year, with theremaining 10 percent given to the district next year.

While the extra funding is good newsfor the district, it does create complications in budget projections forseveral years down the road. The danger in using the money to hire moreteachers, according to Stotts, is trying to figure out how to pay theseteachers once the money received from one-time grant runs out.

"You’d have to know that you couldafford it down the road to keep those people," Stotts said.

Because the district learned last weekabout the extra funding, Stotts said there also wasn’t time to consider hiringnew teachers for the current school year.

Stotts is quick to caution that thislatest federal aid won’t replace the levy up for debate in the Nov. 2 referendum.

The two operating levies, which provide$304.53 per student combined, are among three levies that the district uses.Overall, the three levies equate to $719 of funding per student, or roughly$3.5 million.

The levies, if passed, would providefunds, based on student enrollment, for the next 10 years, allowing thedistrict to better project its budgets. While no new school taxes will beraised if the levies are passed, taxes would decrease if the levy was voteddown.

Still, Stotts said, it would end uptaking money out of the district’s budget which won’t be replaced by one-shotfederal grants. According to Stotts, if the levy was voted down, the districtwould end up having the same $1 to 1.5 million projected budget deficit for thenext school year and beyond, which won’t be replaced by federal aid.

"We’re not actually getting moremoney from this education jobs bill," Stotts said. "That’s theproblem with one-time money."

Another dose of stimulus funding

The Education Job Fund aid comes on theheels of last year’s stimulus funding, which included about $1.1 million in special education funds, about$500,000 in Title I funds and about $2.6 million in stabilization funds. Whilethe special education and Title Ifunds are to be used over a two-year period, the $2.6 million in stimulus fundsgiven to the district was a one-time grant.

The district didn’t really benefit fromlast year’s stimulus money, according to Stotts, since the state reduced theamount of annual aid given to Austin Public Schools and other school districtsbased on the amount of federal stimulus dollars each school was granted.Basically, as a way to balance the state budget, the state withheld the sameamount of funds the district received from federal stimulus dollars.

"The good thing about this(Educati on Job Fund) is the state cannot reduce aid or general educationrevenue to the school district," Stotts said. "Now we get this moneyand the state can’t reduce our general education aid."

Specialeducation programs and funding will remain consistent despite the incomingfederal aid, Stotts said, especially since special education programs fluctuate based on the amount ofspecial-needs students in the district. Students in special education programs often have Individualized EducationPlans and the district, mandated by federal law, must have the staff to meetthose needs. The district then creates and reduces jobs for special education staff based on special-needs students whoenter or leave the district.

"It isn’t like class size,"Stotts said. "In class size, we can determine what kind of staff sizes wecan live with and determine accordingly."