Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Federal programs detailed at district's public meeting

Kathie Janes, federal program coordinator with the Prescott School District, said the state has changed the requirement for its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Now, she said, there must be 25 students for a district to have a subgroup. This information was presented at the District's annual public meeting in September. Actually, the number 25 is misleading. Under state guidelines, 5 percent of the student population will be required for a subgroup.

While some districts in the state will have to have 25 students, Prescott would require a total of 40. This will make it difficult to classify some minorities, such as Hispanic students, as subgroups.

Federal money, she said, is provided to help children from low income and economically deprived families have the same chance to learn as others. However, the federal government says districts must leave no child behind in order to get the funding, and there are strict guidelines on how the federal monies can be used by a district.

The largest amount of federal money comes to the Title I program. These funds are used in the elementary and middle schools to support student learning. Title I, Janes said, has moved from a targeted assistant program to a school-wide one.

This change, she said, means all students can be served, not just low income students. At Prescott Elementary and McRae Middle School this means a total of 777 students are being helped.

Part of the money is used to hire paraprofessionals at PES and MMS to work with early childhood, Kindergarten and 2-8 grade students in literacy and math.

However, MMS is in its second year of a school improvement plan. This means 20 percent of the Title I money must be budgeted for supplemental services for students not scoring proficient on the ACTAAP exams.

Under the Title II-A program, funds are used for teacher enhancement, parental involvement and instructional improvement. The district employs one class reduction teacher at PES and district staff development is supplied by the Southwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative in Hope through Title II-A. Other money from the program is used to support the parent center programs, buy materials or provide speakers.

The Title II-D program is for technology training and staff development. At least 25 percent of these funds must be used in this manner, with the remainder to be used to upgrade technology district wide while supporting a technology program.

The Title IV-A program deals with supporting a non-violent, drug-free curriculum. Money is allocated from all three guidance offices for health services at each school, the improvement of instruction or staff development and to support a K-12 drug education curriculum.

Title V funds are to be used on instructional materials at PHS. This includes library media materials for the Accelerated Reader (AR) program and update media software to support the AR program.

Under Title VI, the money is to be used to support district tutoring programs at PHS and PES. This includes money for salaries and benefits to pay tutors.