Schools to Divvy up $250M in Funding (NV)
September 17, 2010
Area school district leaders say they will analyze staffing needs before deciding on how to distribute their portion of a federal jobs funding bill intended to salvage teaching positions.
Virginia, one of eight states confirmed to receive the money, will get close to $250 million in federal funding to help save education jobs, the Virginia Department of Education said Wednesday.
The education jobs fund bill, signed into law in August, could help bring back jobs lost as a result of the past year’s difficult budget process. The allocated funds can be used to rehire or maintain employees, but cannot be distributed to a school system’s operating budget, according to the Department of Education.
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"In essence, to make a long story short, the money is intended to restore jobs or to hire people to meet the needs of students that you may have lost the ability to do because of the budget cuts," Shenandoah County Superintendent Keith Rowland said.
Shenandoah County’s school system is set to receive nearly $1.2 million in education funds. The school system, which lost a total of 43 positions last year because of budget cuts, will be "very strategic" with the application of the funds, Rowland said.
While the money is not expected to be enough to refill all those positions — the cost of filling just 19 teaching positions is roughly $1 million — it will help with staffing issues, Rowland said.
"It is certainly money we can use right to help get us through," Rowland said.
Rowland said school administrators are working to "determine where the greatest needs are at this time."
Frederick County Public Schools is set to receive $2.7 million, said school system spokesman Steve Edwards.
After facing a tight operating budget year, the school system was given a reprieve by a reduction in Virginia Retirement System premiums, but still had to use a "willful reduction of staff to balance the budget," said Lisa Frye, executive director of finance with Frederick County Public Schools.
The stimulus funds applied during the past two years will be gone after this year, Edwards said, and school systems will be left with having to find another funding source for those positions.
The $2.7 million the system is to receive will help offset th e absence of the stimulus funding but cannot completely cover the loss, Edwards said.
"We are facing what is being called the ‘funding cliff,’" Edwards said.
The funds are intended to be used during the 2010-11 school year, but can be carried over to Sept. 30, 2012.
"It is an acceptable use of the funds to allow them to roll over to the next fiscal year," Frye said.
Warren County Public Schools, which will receive close to $1 million, succeeded in getting through budget cuts with the use of an early retirement incentive plan this school year.
Although the school system has not allotted the money to specific positions, Director of Finance Robert Ballentine said the money must be spent on positions at "the school level."
Winchester Public Schools will receive $711,062, said Superintendent Rick Leonard.
The money can be put toward aiding the city schools with the mandated pupil-to-teacher ratio following an increase in elementary school enrollment, Leonard said.
"It will be a controlled distribution of those funds," Leonard said.
Clarke County is set to receive about $360,000, said Tom Judge, director of joint administrative services.
Clarke was slightly bolstered by a composite index change — one of the factors used to determine state education funding — and avoided full reduction-in-force measures by applying stimulus funds to retain certain positions, Judge said.
"It is understood that when that funding runs o ut that they may not be funded," Judge said. "This jobs bill may be able to allow us to continue those positions."