Stimulus money comes with specifications on how money is to be spent

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[As a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, Chester Community Unit School District 139 is set to receive an estimated $385,577 this spring. The money is to be divided between the following programs: Title I - $89,608; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA Flow Through) - $285,533 and IDEA Preschool - $10,436.

In a weekly message from State Superintendent Christopher Koch, he stated, "The federal stimulus package is a complicated piece of legislation that has had, and will continue to have, many unintended consequences as we all work through it."

"There is a big misconception about this stimulus money. This money cannot supplant and it must be able to sustain. It is not designed for creating or saving jobs," said Chester Community Unit School District 139 Superintendent Rebecca Keim. "Perandoe Co-Op is aggressively looking at ways to use this money to improve our programs."

As these are one-time funds, ARRA Title 1, Part A funds should be directed toward short-term investments rather than expenditures that the LEAs (Local Education Agency) may not be able to sustain once the recovery funds are expended. Some possible uses of the funds include:

Establishing a system for identifying and training highly effective teachers to serve as instructional leaders in Title 1 school wide programs and modifying the school schedule to allow for collaboration among the instructional staff.

Establishing intensive, year-long teacher training for all teachers and the principal in a Title 1 elementary school in corrective action or restructuring status in order to train teachers to use a new reading curriculum that aggressively works on improving students' oral language skills and vocabulary or, in some other way, builds teachers' capacity to address academic achievement problems.

Strengthen and expand early childhood education by providing resources to align a district-wide Title 1 Pre-K program with state early learning standard and state content standards for grades K-3 and, if there is a plan for sustainability beyond 2010-11, expanding high-quality Title 1 Pre-K programs to larger numbers of young children.

Providing new opportunities for Title 1 school wide programs for secondary school students to use high-quality, online courseware as supplemental learning materials for meeting mathematics and science requirements.

Providing professional development to teachers in Title 1 targeted assistance programs on the use of data to inform and improve instruction for Title 1 eligible students.

Using reading or mathematics coaches to provide professional development to teachers in Title 1 targeted assistance programs; and establishing or expanding fiscally sustainable extended learning opportunities for Title 1 eligible students in targeted assistance programs, including activities provided before school, after school, during the summer, or over an extended school year.

"We are being cautious and making cuts because the revenue stream is not coming in as projected. General State Aid payments have been received up to now; however, general obligation funds from Illinois regarding special education, transportation, early childhood and Title 1 are behind $463,770. We projected an increase, however there is no increase. In fact, we are getting a decrease in the 2009-10 general state aid formula," said Keim. "Public schools are not recession proof."

Other school districts in the area to receive stimulus money are as follows: Coulterville Unit School District 1 - $97,066; Red Bud Community Unit School District 132 - $313,460; Sparta Community Unit School District 140 - $532,104 and Steeleville Community Unit School District 138 - $135,166.

Lastly, in his message Koch went on to note that the State Board of Education is currently taking applications for stimulus funding to improve school cafeterias throughout the state. The agency will award $3.6 million via a competitive grant process to entries, both public and non-public, participating in the National School Lunch Program, with priority being given to those programs in which at least 50 percent of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. The grants may be used to purchase new equipment, or renovate or replace equipment.