The Marshall School District is in line to receive more than $400,000 in federal funding through the Education Jobs Fund.
The fund, a one-time federal program that provides $10 billion in assistance to states to save or create education jobs for the 2010-2011 school year, will distribute an estimated total of $167 million to Minnesota schools. State education funding formulas determine how much each school district receives.
Nationally, the fund will provide $10 billion. The U.S. Education Department estimates the fund will save as many as 160,000 educators who might have otherwise lost their job.
The funding, which must be used for school-level personnel, not district-wide positions or for contracted services, is good news for schools. Without an increase in state funding many districts are staring at projected budget shortfalls for FY 2011 and are facing more budget cuts.
"This is certainly welcome revenue," said Lakeview Superintendent Chris Fenske. "We understand it's one-time money, but this will be our third consecutive year of flat revenue from the state, so any more revenue is good revenue. We'll take it."
Marshall will receive an estimated $441,728.
Marshall Superintendent Klint Willert said schools have a fairly wide latitude on how the funds can be utilized; schools can recall employees who have lost their jobs, hire new employees, or use the funding to cover costs of existing employees. But because it's one-time money, Willert said schools need to be cautious in their spending.
"What it comes down to is, are those funds sustainable?" he said. "We have to ensure we are not creating sustainability issues - if we go out and hire new staff members and then in eight or nine months have to ask those employees to leave. It would be a disservice to the school and the community to hire new people just because of this funding and then turn around and have to let them go."
Willert said it's too early to determine exactly how the money will be used in Marshall.
"What we're going to do has yet to be decided," he said. "If we can somehow utilize these dollars to minimize the impact of the future deficit we know the state's going to face I think it would be pretty prudent on our part to use it to help soften that impact as we go into the future. We'll work with the state department of education and work with the school board to think about it in a planful way."
The Yellow Medicine East School District will receive an estimated $191,446, Tracy Area Schools $173,533, Murray County Central $155,189, and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton $125,580. The numbers are preliminary and subject to change.
In Cottonwood, where residents will vote in November on a district operating levy, the Lakeview School District will see an estimated $123,045 coming its way through the fund. Its proposed levy will be for $800 per pupil, which, Fenske said, is lower than the state average ($878 per pupil) and regional average ($847). If the levy passes, it would count toward the 2011-12 school year. The proposed funding from the Education Jobs Fund is for this school year.
"The feedback we've gotten is people felt it was pretty fair given the idea that we're on our third straight year of flat funding (from the state)," said Fenske. "And if you look at the state deficit projecting out it certainly doesn't look any better for local governments and schools in the future. Our levy is expiring and we just can't let it expire and not have anything."
Lakeview has seen its enrollment numbers gradually decline from 595 in 2005-06 to 553 last year.
"You never want to lose students, but it's not drastic," Fenske said. "The problem is you don't lose all the kids in the same grade level. If you have a grade level of 40 kids, you're going to have two sections of 20, so your fixed costs you still need a teacher in each room. When you have declining enrollment in different grade levels, that's where it hits you."
In Canby, which had about $200,000 in overall deductions or delays in spending this year, Superintendent Loren Hacker said that while receiving federal dollars is always a good thing for schools facing tight budgets, the economic condition the state of Minnesota is currently in still casts a dark cloud over schools.
"It's always good news; you're always searching for revenue sources," Hacker said. "You gotta be careful because there's always another side to the story. Nothing is free, you know? We have a looming issue - the state is in debt.
"Last year there was unallotted stimulus dollars; what if the state comes back and says, 'maybe we should cut state aid to schools by a comparable amount?' We don't know. We have a new Legislature to elect and a new governor is going to lead us. There's a lot of water going under the dam yet."
Minnesota's three largest school districts, Anoka-Hennepin, St. Paul and Minneapolis, will receive $7 million, $9 million and $8 million, respectively.
The Ed Jobs program is authorized in Public Law No. 111-226, which was signed into law on Aug. 10, 2010.