Stimulus Funds May Put Schools On Edge Of Cliff

December 16, 2009

Without question, Jackson County school administrators say their financial health would have been much worse without $20 million in federal stimulus funding they have received so far.

"We might have been faced with layoffs if we didn’t have that money," said Don Tassie, superintendent of The da Vinci Institute, where money also was used for classroom aides and supplies.

The concern of officials, however, is what some have called "the cliff" – the day the money from the American Recovery and ReinvestmentAct runs out.

A large chunk of stimulus money provided to education was used to fill holes from declining state revenue and students leaving the state.

The idea was that in two years when the economy improved, the stimulus money would not be needed.

"It’s complicated in Michigan because in the midst of receiving money, districts have received budget cuts from the state," said Leslee Fritz, director of the Michigan Economic Recovery Office.

"That’s one of the reasons why the governor has been so vocal about the need for a long-term solution for funding in education."

The money must be spent by 2011. And budgets will likely be as challenging then as they are now, Fritz said.

"There are going to be difficult decisions th at have to be made," said Western Schools Superintendent Michael Smajda. "It’s about doing what we can with the resources we have."

In addition to the stabilization funds, local districts received more stimulus money through three major funding streams: Special education; Title I-Part A, given to schools with a high number of poor students; and Title II-Part D, which can be used for technology.

Spending varies by district. Northwest Schools Superintendent Emily Goodwin said the $251,193 in Title 1 money the district received allowed it to create five to eight positions for new programs such as Spanish classes for elementary students.

"It has allowed us to do things that we would normally have not been able to do," Goodwin said. "They were all things we wanted to do, but we didn’t have the money for." She said the district tried to use the additional funding to invest in programs or technology – such as a computer-based reading program – that could continue beyond 2010 when the stimulus money runs out.

The district will have to re-evaluate other new programs to see if school leaders want to find a way to make them continue, she said. Some positions could stay while others are eliminated, she said. "It may redefine how we deliver support to students," Goodwin said.

Some districts, such as Western and Northwest, have planned to hold public forums to receive input on where cuts could be made or how they could raise revenues next school year as stimulus money runs out.

At Columbia Schools, some of the money went toward replacing four retired teachers to help keep class sizes down, Superintendent Brent Beamish said. The district has not yet determined how it will use the remaining $197,000, which is allocated specifically for special education, he said.

Jackson Public Schools was able to use some of its Title I funding to bring back Reading Recovery, a program that helps struggling readers. The district had cut the program in 2006.

That created eight positions. Teachers with previous Reading Recovery training moved into those spots, freeing up other positions and helping the district avoid teacher layoffs last year.

Jackson Public Schools’ Title I funding totals $2,034,925. The district also received $31,200 for new school lunch equipment.

Districts are also using some Title I funding for staff training at the Jackson County Intermediate School District.

There are sessions on literacy interventions, how to use technology in geometry and ways to lower truancy and drug use and increase academic success among at-risk students, among others.

In all, Jackson County districts received $3.5 million in Title I funding. The money can also fund parent-education workshops and Girl Quest and Boy Quest, after-school programs which help boost self-esteem and achievement.

"It has been a blessing to them in so many ways," said Gloria Smith, supervisor of consulting services at the ISD. "They would have never had opportunities to do that."

Unlike one-time conferences, the teachers in the staff training meet once a month to make sure their efforts are sustained.

And the stimulus money has allowed entire building staffs to be trained, instead of a couple of people at a time, Smith said.

The ISD also distributed $6.3 million in special-education funding to the local districts based on how many special-education students each district serves.

Districts must spend half on special education and the rest c an go toward general education expenses, said Richard Rendell, the ISD’s director of special education. The idea is that general-education teachers will learn techniques that will also benefit the special-education students in their classes, he said.

The state is aiming for all special-education students to spend 80 percent of their school day in a regular classroom, Rendell said. Previously, there was no such requirement.

The ISD itself also received $213,381 in special-education funding that can be used for early-childhood intervention.

With those funds, the ISD created five positions to boost its existing home-based program to correct students’ speech difficulties before they get to kindergarten, thus decreasing their need for special education, Rendell said.

The money allows students to receive treatment more than one to two times a week, which is the normal treatment frequency in the program.

Officials say it is difficult to determine the number of jobs saved or created in education because of the different funding streams that pay for positions and retirements and the shuffling of staff each year.

"In schools, it really is a calculation of what we would have had to do without this money," Fritz said. "It becomes sort of a theoretical calculation, which is a much more difficult thing to do."

Smajda said it is hard to quantify how many staff reductions were postponed by the stimulus money, which made cuts this year less painful.

"Would we have lost positions? That’s shaky," he said. "Yes, it has helped, there’s no doubt in my mind, but to take credit for saving jobs, I think, is a little strong."

He said everyone needs to work together to determine how distri cts will cope with continued economic struggles and no stimulus money.

"This problem was not caused by teachers, school boards or administration. It wasn’t even caused by the Legislature," Smajda said.

"It’s a sign of our weak economy."