Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Advocates want District to use unspent federal funds

This is a switch. Most school districts have no money and this one has a surplus in the fund to serve immigrants. Residents want the money spent on more ELL classes and services. - - Donna Poisl

They want more bilingual assistants hired. The surplus may be $1.2 million

by Paul Socolar

The School District has for years carried surpluses of a million dollars or more in unspent funds from the federal aid program designated for immigrant and English language learner (ELL) students – and has continued to do so even as advocacy groups pleaded for more services, a Notebook investigation has revealed.

The District last fall received its latest annual grant of more than $3 million from Title III, the federal program that aids immigrants and ELLs. As of this June 30, nine months into the grant year, $2.2 million of that grant was still unspent, according to a District financial report provided to the Notebook.

Officials now project that at least $1.2 million of the funds will remain at the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30, when a new grant will be awarded.
Click on the headline to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

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