NUSD cautious about stimulus money

The Nogales Unified School District No. 1 could receive about $2.5 million in federal stimulus money in time for the 2009-2010 school year, said Finance Director Karla Soto.

But would that money make up for what the Arizona Legislature slashed in late January to plug a gap in the state budget?

When NUSD got the bad news in early February, Superintendent Shawn McCollough and his staff pared $760,000 out of the current school year budget, Soto said. Next year, she anticipates about a 5 percent reduction in state funding.

The state gives school districts some flexibility in how they spend those basic aid dollars, Soto said. “The federal funds always come with strings.”

The stimulus money would land in two funds �“ Title I and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), Soto said. Title I funds come to districts with a high percentage of children living in poverty. In the current school year, NUSD received $2,679,537 in Title I money, which it spends on reading and math programs to help those disadvantaged students.

IDEA funds are designated to provide special education and related services to students with disabilities, Soto said. Currently, NUSD receives $868,070.

“They (federal funds) must always supplement, not supplant, an existing program,” Soto said. “You can’t fund what you were doing before.”

Soto is waiting for guidance from the State Department of Education about how the stimulus money could be spent, she said.

McCollough was cautious about the restrictions that would come with the federal funds.

“It's not like they are going to give us a check and be done with it,” he said. “The dollars cannot be arbitrarily applied, for example, to teacher salaries and/or teacher raises.”

NUSD is committed to “becoming as lean and efficient as possible without sacrificing classrooms,” McCollough said. “It would be irresponsible to build a budget around money that has not dropped and may not drop.”

At Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District No. 35, business manager Isela Brown expects to receive $$306,600 in Title I funds and $605,300 in IDEA funds, she said.

The figures for both districts are estimates, said Richard Valdivia, deputy associate superintendent for operations at the Arizona Department of Education. Actual numbers will be released next week, he said.

Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-District 7) announced the funds in an April 1 press release. He said the recovery plan would also create a state stabilization fund to “restore harmful cuts to education.”

States can now apply for this funding, Grijalva said. But the Obama administration has issued guidelines that say that local school districts and colleges can decide how to use the emergency aid.

Those funds should be used to “backfill harmful cuts to K12 and higher education, to stave off teacher layoffs, and to modernize school facilities,” Grijalva said.