Schools in Race for State Program Funded by Federal Grant

January 15, 2010

As the deadline nears for Pennsylvania to bid for a $400 million piece of a f ederal competitive education grant, school boards — all wanting a piece of the pie — faced their own deadline Wednesday.

School boards had to sign agreements with the state, promising to fulfill a number of reforms that some critics say will cost far more money than what they take in while giving up chunks of control along the way, according to a presentation Monday to the Perkiomen Valley School Board.

Perkiomen Valley was one of an expected 300 school districts to approve joining the state’s "Race to the Top" effort, which calls for improving schools and student achievement.

The program involves meeting goals on standards that prepare students for college and workplace success, implementing data systems to measure student success, ·creating and supporting effective teachers and principals and turning around lowest achieving schools.

Board members John King and Lori Snyder voted against the initiative that might garner Perkiomen Valley School District up to $250,000 over four years.

King and Snyder cast their doubt that the school district would receive full funding based on the large number of school districts applying and that there is no guarantee the state will win the full $400 million, let alone any money at all.

"I don’t think we’ll get the money out of this," Snyder said. "It doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t do these things, but the money shouldn’t be the motivation to do it."

Considering the school district faces a massive deficit for next year — $7.24 million based on figures in December — both board members said they didn’t want to put the district at risk of increasing that debt to participate.

Superintendent Clifford Rogers pointed out that joining the effort would require the school district to p erform18 required acts, which might constitute "a lot of work" and reporting "on everything."

"Some of these things we planned to do anyway," he said before spelling them out to the board.

One requirement alone calls for implementing a high-quality curriculum that is aligned with standards, assessments, curriculum framework, instruction, materials and interventions.

Within that one requirement are four more requirements: "crafting a strategic and coherent approach to the six elements; aligning all district instructional materials and resources to the most granular level available; building time into the schedule for teachers to participate in collaborative learning such as peer-to-peer observations and teaming within and across grade levels that includes the use of standards-aligned system online tools," according to the presentation.

"Time equates to a lot of expense," Snyder said, mentioning there are additional costs for travel and substitute teachers.

King agreed: "I worry about what Lori is talking about."

Rogers told the board should the district not participate, the state would offer it support to implement the requirements at its own pace.

Other board members, however, given the school district’s financial state, didn’t want to take the chance of losing any money given that it’s already trying to implement some of the required acts.

"We can’t separate from the dollar aspect especially in this economy," board member Bonnie Neiman said, adding there’s an opportunity for the school district to withdraw from participating if doesn’t receive the financial backing it needs.