The words "good" and "news" are not used together all that often these days when discussing education funding in Kansas.
State revenue shortfalls have led to deep budget cuts, which have included decreases in state aid to public school districts. Kansas schools have slashed more than 3,000 positions and many, including local schools, are not filling several vacant positions.
But if there is a ray of light in these dark times for school budgets, it's been the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed by President Obama in February. Commonly referred to as the stimulus package, the ARRA has sent much-needed extra dollars to school districts throughout the country.
Earlier this week, officials at USD 250 in Pittsburg laid out how they plan to spend the $724,530 in Title 1 funds they received from the stimulus package. The money must be spent during the next two school years — hence the word, stimulus — and the district has developed a two-year plan for those funds.
According to district documents, adding teaching positions is USD 250's main goal for the stimulus cash. For the 2009-2010 school year, a teacher position or a paraeducator position will be added at each of the district's four elementary schools.
At George Nettels and Westside schools, ARRA money will be used to fund positions previously paid for through a Reading First Grant, a federal grant that expired on Tuesday. A Lakeside and Meadowlark, teaching positions will be added to help reduce class sizes, as smaller class sizes have shown to be more conducive to a child's education.
"The (Lakeside and Meadowlark) positions will be new positions based on enrollment increases," said Cory Gibson, assistant superintendent. "We normally would have taken new enrollment money from state funding. But with state funding decreasing, that wasn't possible for us this year."
Lakeside and Meadowlark will also add one teacher per school to help educate and care for at-risk students. Gibson said that as enrollment has increased at those schools, so too has the number of students who are considered at-risk.
"The number of students that are considered at-risk has grown over the past several years and (hiring those positions) has been on the to-do list for quite some time," Gibson said. "We are looking at helping the kids who need the most help."
Also on the spending list for the upcoming school year is laptop carts at George Nettels and Westside, as well as a new SmartBoard at Westside. An Accelerated Math program also will be implemented at Westside, Lakeside and Meadowlark.
The planned spending for the 2010-2011 school year is the same, with the exception of the hardware purchases.
Gibson said that while the additional staff that will be added thanks to stimulus money, those positions may just as easily disappear once the ARRA money runs out in two years.
"That is a strong possibility," he said. "I think the thought is that maybe after two years of recovery, both the federal and state funds will increase again, but no one can predict how long we may be in this recession. Right now, we can only guarantee those two years."
But even if the funds for those positions are here just through 2011, Gibson said it's better to have had the funds and lost them than to never have had them at all.
"We're grateful that the money came to us for these two years," he said. "It at least gives us an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those kids served."
Of the $724,530 granted to USD 250, $8,750 is required to be used for funding parent involvement and support for homeless students. More than $24,200 of the ARRA money is required to be distributed to the district's participating non-public school, St. Mary's-Colgan.
PITTSBURG —
