Kokomo — Howard County public school corporations received nearly $2.7 million in stimulus funding, as part of the Education Jobs Fund recently passed by Congress.
However, school officials are in no rush to spend the funding, which has to be used by September 2012, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett urged them to be careful how and when they spend it.
He said while “record levels of total funding” from federal, state and local sources have been made available to schools for 2009 and 2010, “the next budget cycle will be very difficult. Therefore, please consider reserving this one-time funding until the level of resources budgeted by the General Assembly in the upcoming budget cycle becomes clearer.
Schools had to make substantial cuts in 2010, after Gov. Mitch Daniels reduced the state K-12 education budget by $300 million, due to declining state revenues.
According to the Indiana Economic Digest, Indiana received $207 million from the $10 billion federal Education Jobs Fund signed by President Barack Obama.
At Eastern Howard Schools, where no teachers were laid off, Superintendent Tracy Caddell plans to wait to decide how to spend its portion of the funding until the state legislature writes its two-year budget.
“We want to make sure there are no more cuts in the 2011 funding, or moving forward with the 2012 funding. We want to make sure we can keep that money until we see what type of budget we will have, so we can protect teachers and jobs with it.”
He said the availability of the funding is “wonderful news,” and he hopes it will get state schools through the next year.
Kokomo-Center Superintendent Jeff Hauswald said the money could help pay for some staff members recalled from a reduction in force.
The Kokomo board laid off 20 teachers, and has recalled all but six of those teachers. Two not recalled are working in temporary jobs in the district, Hauswald said.
He said federal restrictions on how the money can be spent will be given later, and Bennett has said spending will be carefully monitored.
He said the funding is one-time money, in hopes schools will become more efficient or the economy will rebound.
“It’s sort of a stop gap measure to keep employment levels as close to last year’s levels as possible.”
Bennett said in a letter to school officials that the education jobs funding was allocated to schools in the same proportion as each one’s share of state funding in 2010.
He said there will be “significant expenditure reporting requirements” to detail how the money was spent to retain, rehire or hire new teachers or support personnel.
He said the U.S. Department of Education allows funds to be used for non-classroom costs, such as cafeteria workers, coaches and bus drivers, but said he prefers that “this one-time windfall of money be used for classroom activities that will enable our children to receive the best instruction possible, while improving the ratio of dollars spent in the classroom.”
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