GUIDELINES FOR FEDERAL STIMULUS DOLLARS

The first half of the increases for IDEA and Title I have been released to the states. Districts all over this country are working to plan their budgets for next year and establish plans to make the best use of the stimulus funding.

It is clear that the stimulus money carries with it four expectations:

1. Spend funds quickly to save and create jobs.
2. Improve student achievement through school improvement and reform.
3. Ensure transparency, reporting and accountability.
4. Invest funding thoughtfully to minimize funding cliff.

District 742 intends to use the dollars wisely to save jobs, and we want to do this with transparency and accountability. We also have plans in place to provide professional development, interventions like all-day-everyday kindergarten, and student-growth assessments that will provide the data we need to be successful well into the 21st century. Unfortunately, we realize that these dollars will need to be spent over the next two years leaving us with the need to, once again, reduce our budget. Therefore, we will leverage these dollars to show our legislators the importance of adequate school funding while investing them in our professionals for the long term impact they can make to meet the needs of children.

It is clear that the Department of Education is providing flexibility while not holding districts out of compliance on "supplement" not "supplant" requirements. Districts can exercise the 50 percent flexibility in their reduction of local effort using the stimulus dollars, but this puts a burden on all districts because of the need to either cut later or find more revenue. Even so, we hold our breath because we worry about what the state legislature may want to accomplish by holding these dollars. Fortunately, Secretary Duncan is discouraging governors and the state legislators from playing games with the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The secretary has made it clear that he will not grant these waivers to any states he perceives to be playing games with the money.

District 742 is going to be innovative as we use stimulus dollars. We are going to impact student achievement, increase capacity with our teachers (long-term), we are going to track results with all our children, and we are going to track the results of all-day-everyday kindergarten program.