Issues
in School Finance: Launching a Title One School-Wide Program
Alice
KellerMontclair State University
Thesis
The federal government provides
grant funds to public school districts that can only be spent according to
narrowly defined purposes and cannot be reallocated to other accounts within
the budget. In the case of Title One
funds, they must be used for targeted assistance services to support students
who fall below the district target on state assessments. At WWW Middle School, there is a large
percentage of students just barely reaching the target who could also benefit
greatly from the programs funded by our Title One grant. This year, WWW Middle School is applying to become
a Title One School. If the school is
granted permission to switch from targeted assistance to a school-wide program,
the administration will have the power to use the funds to support “any
students that we believe could utilize support to grow and get better” (Director
of Secondary Education, personal communication, April 16, 2013). The district
believes that this change will be crucial in increasing student achievement
across the school and avoiding being labeled as a “school in need of
improvement” and being subjected to interventions by the state.
Review
of Title I Grant Funding
In 1965, Congress passed the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was “specifically directed to
supporting public education for low-income students” (Guthrie, Hart, Ray,
Candoli, & Hack, 2008, p.211). The ESEA established grant funds that are
distributed to public schools, and “historically, the bulk of ESEA funds have
been dedicated to ‘Title One,’ which seeks to support students in poverty” (Guthrie
et al., 2008, p. 211). Schools receive
Title One grant funding based on the number of students who qualify as
economically disadvantaged as indicated by their “Free or Reduced Lunch” status
(Director of Secondary Education, personal communication, 2013). These funds are considered “fund 20” restricted
special revenue funds, which must be used for specific purposes and cannot be
reallocated (Pepe, personal communication, 2013). Funds also come with accountability to the
federal government, which mandates the “use of standards and assessments to
determine if schools receiving federal money were attaining concomitant student
achievement gains, and a system of rewards and sanctions for states, districts,
and schools receiving funds and that could not demonstrate improved results”
(Guthrie et al., 2008, p. 211). Under No
Child Left Behind, schools receiving Title One funds have been required to meet
AYP or else undergo a series of mandated reform measures.
For the 2012-2013 school year, WWW
Public schools received $536,152 in Title One funds, which is roughly 1% of the
total $51,216,516 revenue reflected in the budget (Board of Education,
2012). Of this, WWW Middle School
received $147,962, based on having 411 students or 62.4% of students considered
to be “economically disadvantaged” (State of New Jersey, 2012). The breakdown of how these funds were spent to
support our at-risk students is outlined in Appendix A and will be discussed in
the following section.
Issue:
Targeted Assistance at WWW Middle School
In a targeted-assistance program, such
as the one currently operating at WWW Middle School, only specific children are
eligible to receive services funded by the Title One grant money. The government has determined that “eligible children are children identified by the school
as failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the State's challenging student
academic achievement standards on the basis of multiple, educationally related,
objective criteria established by the local educational agency and supplemented
by the school” (US Department of Education, 2005). For a middle school in New Jersey, the
NJASK5, NJASK6, and NJASK7 scores are the primary criteria used to identify
students eligible for services in the following school year, with the cutoff
score being the “just proficient” score of 200 (Director of Secondary Education,
personal communication, 2013).Only children meeting this qualification can
benefit from the funds.
Schools are
warned that “items purchased should not be used by non-Title I students,” and
“presentations/trips should not benefit non-Title I students” (State
of New Jersey Department of Education 2013).
Furthermore, these funds must be used to supplement local funds, not to
replace them. For example, “if all
students/classrooms are getting an item (e.g.: computer) then the district
can’t just pay for the Title I portion out of Title I funds” (State of New
Jersey Department of Education 2013).
Schools are also asked to use the funds whenever possible to “give
primary consideration to providing extended learning time, such as an extended
school year, before- and after-school, and summer programs and opportunities”
(US Department of Education, 2005). Additionally,
schools must “minimize removing
children from the regular classroom during regular school hours for instruction”
(US Department of Education, 2005).
WWW Middle School current provides a
variety of targeted assistance programs.
Roughly 40% of the school’s Title One grant ($59,251) is spent on the Saturday Academy that meets 15 times
during the year and the Summer Academy that meets for 21 days in July. These funds pay for the school to be open and
staffed by a custodian, an administrator, and six teachers, who are paid a
stipend. In addition to each stipend,
the school must budget an additional 7.65% of the stipend amount to pay a
portion of the social security tax (Assistant Business Administrator, personal
communication, 2013). Another 54% of the
funds ($80,117) goes to partial salaries and benefits of two Title One
teachers. For
salaries funded by Title One, the district must budget 21.65% of the salary amount to pay a portion of social security, TPAF, and
FICA (Assistant Business Administrator, personal communication, 2013).The school
actually employs three Title One teachers, funding 100% of one teacher, 80% of
the second teacher and 30% of the third out of the regular “fund 10” budget (Director
of Secondary Education, personal communication, 2013). These teachers provide support to the
students classified as Title One students by teaching elective basic skills
courses in Language Arts and Math that the students take in addition to their
daily classes in those subjects. They
also act as in-class-support teachers during Math and Language Arts classes,
working with small groups of students during the independent practice portion
of the lesson. Because both of their
support roles(elective course and in-class support) take place during the
school day, the district tries to fund as much of the salaries as possible in
order to leave enough grant funds to run the Saturday and summer programs. The remaining funds are used for materials and
professional development to support the programs.
The current impact of the
Title One funds on the educational programs and outcomes at WWW Middle School
is hugely constricted by the need to designate and serve only specific
students. In many cases, there are other
students who could benefit from the services provided without increasing the
cost to the district. The Saturday and
summer programs have a set cost for six classrooms regardless of the number of
students attending the classes. The same economy of scale applies to the
elective basic skills courses. For both
programs, the teachers and administrators have identified a group of
“borderline” students with NJ ASK scores in the range of 200-210 who could
benefit without increasing the cost but are not legally permitted to attend (Director
of Secondary Education, personal communication, 2013). Additionally, subscriptions and materials
currently serving the Title One students such as the Read 180 software would be
useful in many classrooms but are currently constrained to the Title One
elective classes.
Solution: School-Wide Program for WWW Middle School
Title One funds can be used to “upgrade the entire
educational program of a school” when “not less than 40 percent of the children
are from low-income families,” and WWW far exceeds this minimum (US Department
of Education, 2005). Once permission has
been granted to start a school-wide program, two key constraints of the
targeted assistance program are no longer an issue. Schools participating in a school-wide
program are not required “to identify particular children as eligible to
participate” or “to provide services to such children that are supplementary”
(US Department of Education, 2005). Without
designating specific Title One students, “Title I is no longer a distinct
program but is to be integrated into the regular educational program of the
school” (Education Week,
2004). If WWW Middle School is granted
permission to become a Title One school, a variety of changes are
possible. The first set of changes
proposed will extend the current basic skills and extended school year services
to students who wouldn’t have qualified under that targeted assistance
program.
To become a Title
One school, WWW Middle School will have to take a series of steps over the
course of the next year. They will be
required to complete a “comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school”
and then identify “school-wide reform strategies” that will be undertaken using
the grant funds (US Department of Education, 2005). Schools are encouraged to include strategies
that “increase the amount and quality of learning time, such as providing an
extended school year and before- and after- school and summer programs and
opportunities” (US Department of Education, 2005). WWW Middle school may choose by reallocating
the funds to not only open the existing Saturday and summer programs to a few
borderline students but to extend the scope of these programs by adding stipends
for additional classrooms and teachers.
However, some of the funds will need to be spent to change the learning
opportunities during the school year, as part of a “comprehensive plan for reforming the total
instructional program” (US Department of Education, 2005). This plan has not yet been created, but there
is a statutory one-year period during with the plan will be “developed with the
involvement of parents and other members of the community to be served and
individuals who will carry out such plan, including teachers, principals, and
administrators, and…students from the school” (US Department of Education,
2005).Working
together, the major stakeholders will determine how to best use the funds in a
more flexible manner than our current targeted assistance program allows.
References
Assistant
Business Administrator, Phone Call. 17 April 2013.
Board
of Education (2012). REVISED 2012-2013 Budget.
Director
of Secondary Education, Personal interview.
16 April 2013.
Guthrie,
J. W., Hart, C. C., Ray, J. R., Candoli, I. C., Hack, W. G. (2008). Modern
School Business Administration, A Planning Approach. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Pepe,
L., Professor, Montclair State University and Business Administrator, Summit
Public Schools. Class Lecture. 23 March
2013.
State of New Jersey (2012). New
Jersey School Performance Report: WWW Middle School.
State of New Jersey (2010).
Title I Fiscal Responsibilities.
Retrieved from http://www.state.nj.us/education/title1/accountability/audit/outline.pdf
U.S.
Department of Education (2005). Elementary and Secondary Education: Part A –
Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg2.html#sec1114
Appendix A
Title One
Expenditures for WWW Middle School 2012-2013
 Expense |
Account
|
Amount
|
Notes
|
Title
1 Teacher D.S.
|
20-231-100-101-04-00
|
$50,775
|
70%
of salary
|
Title
1 Teacher T.S.
|
20-231-100-101-04-00
|
$15,614
|
20%
of salary
|
Benefits
|
20-231-200-200-04-00
|
$13,728
|
|
Saturday
Academy
Teachers
|
20-231-100-101-04-00
|
$20,160
|
6
teachers @ $42/hr x 4 hours x 15 weeks
|
Benefits
|
20-231-200-200-04-00
|
$1,542
|
|
Saturday
Academy Administrator
|
20-231-100-101-04-00
|
$3,713
|
1
admin @ $55/hr x 4.5 hours x 15 weeks
|
Benefits
|
20-231-200-200-04-00
|
$284
|
|
Summer
Academy Teachers
|
20-231-100-101-04-00
|
$20,916
|
6
teachers @$166/day x 21 days
|
Benefits
|
20-231-200-200-04-00
|
$1,600
|
|
Supplies
|
20-231-100-610-04-00
|
$7,268
|
|
Supplies
|
20-231-200-610-04-00
|
$1,507
|
|
Stipends
|
20-231-200-110-04-00
|
$1000
|
|
Benefits
|
20-231-100-101-04-00
|
$77
|
|
Workshops
|
20-231-200-580-04-00
|
$2500
|
|
Other
Objects
|
20-231-200-890-04-00
|
$1100
|
|
Professional
Development
|
20-231-300-320-04-00
|
$2500
|
|
Custodian
|
20-231-200-214-04-00
|
$3500
|
|
Benefits
|
20-231-200-200-04-00
|
$268
|
|
Total
|
$147,962
|
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