Archives > The Colony Courier-Leader > News
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
RSS
Share
State, federal changes could mean $4 million less for LISD
By Chris Roark, Staff writer
As if the current economic situation hasn't plagued school districts enough, several changes at the state and federal level will likely cause many school districts to be out even more money than they expected.
The federal and state government recently announced changes in some of its programs that give money to school districts. As a result, Lewisville ISD, which is already facing an $18 million deficit, stands to be without $4.5 million that it was relying on this year from grants and other money it was expecting.
One of those changes is Title 1 money, which is given by the federal government to schools with students that have a low socioeconomic background. The government recently changed its criteria to determine who qualifies for the money, and LISD spokeswoman Karen Permetti said that change means $3.2 million less for the district.
Permetti said what hurts is that LISD misses the criteria by only a few students, though the change will affect many.
"It's based on the census, and now 5 percent of the students must live at or below the poverty level," Permetti said. "Our level is 4.49 percent, so we're just talking about a handful of students here."
LISD has also relied on the Accelerated Math Instruction and Accelerated Reading Instruction Grant (AMI/ARI), which for the last few years meant an automatic $741,762 for the district. Now, however, it is a competitive grant. Permetti said the Texas Education Commissioner is considering holding off a year before making this a competitive grant but said even if that happens, only one-third of the previous year’s amount would be available.
"All of a sudden, we can't count on this grant," Permetti said. "It's not guaranteed because others are vying for it. Campuses can still apply for it, but you might not get the money that you did in the past. It's disappointing because for years we have been investing in all of our students. But now this has been turned into a competitive process."
Permetti said the cut in funding impacts several areas, especially tutoring.
Students are required to pass the reading and math portions of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam in the fifth and eighth grades to advance to the next grade level. Schools with a number of students needing remediation for reasons such as language gaps, academic gaps or mobility have used the grant money for tutoring to fill the gaps of students and to keep those students at the same pace as everyone else.
With the money not coming in for the AMI/ARI grant, that reduces the amount of money that goes to pay teachers to come in to school early or stay late to tutor students, as well as resources and transportation to accommodate the extra tutoring. Permetti said this could result in teachers having to volunteer to tutor. Or, a student in need of extra help might have to be tutored in the middle of the day, she said, which could cause the student not to participate in an extra-curricular activity.
Principals at these schools must now be creative on how to get the tutoring done with limited resources.
Pam Flores, principal at DeLay Middle School in Lewisville, said in the past her teachers would spend two days a week providing after-school tutoring for class needs plus a day for TAKS-specific tutoring. The extra time was fully funded through state AMI/ARI grants. Currently, she is paying extra teachers for Wednesday nights in order to provide needed assistance because of missing class or making up a test, thus giving teachers an additional day for remedial/TAKS after school tutoring.
"We think in the long run, this will give us greater results because the tutoring will be immediate instead of waiting until closer to the TAKS test, which is what we've done in the past," Flores said.
Flores said there will be challenges, such as what happens if an eighth-grader fails the reading or math test and doesn't have a tutor in the summer to advance. But she's optimistic schools will figure out a way to clear this newest hurdle.
"Our kids won't suffer because of this," Flores said. "We'll make it work, but it's a tough equation to deal with."
The Investment Capital Fund's eligibility requirements have changed as well. Now, only Academically Unacceptable campuses and Target Assistant Teams qualify for this money, which in years past has brought in $50,000 to each school that qualified. LISD had three campuses qualify last year. When the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released its school ratings this past summer, LISD didn't have any academically unacceptable campuses.
Also, the Texas Educator Excellence Grant, which brought in $100,000 each year to LISD, has been discontinued.
Finally, LISD discovered it is not eligible for the 2009-12 Algebra Readiness Grant this year. The district had received money the last three years and was expecting $235,000 this year.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
You must register with a valid email to post comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here:
Become a Registered User
- Return to: News «
- Home «
- Top of Page ^
