School districts parcel out stimulus funds

The Bering Strait School District encompasses 80,000 square miles, and its 15 schools stretch from Shishmaref in the north to St. Michael in the south.

When the district's superintendent, Jim Heckerson, found out that his district and its 1,800 students would be receiving over $5 million in federal stimulus money, the first priority for him and his school board was early childhood education.

"It's important in our district because we know if we can get students at age level and at grade level then we have our best shot at students achieving at high levels and our best shot at students graduating," Heckerson said. "Our goal is when kindergartners start school at 5 years old that they are truly ready for kindergarten level material and that they're on level."

Last year only two schools in Heckerson's district had early childhood education teachers, but this year 10 out of the 15 schools in the district will have teachers who will focus on preparing 3- and 4-year-olds for kindergarten. Some of those new teachers were hired with federal stimulus funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

All told, Alaska's 54 school districts received $158 million in ARRA funds, a one-time payment that must be spent within 27 months.

The Anchorage School District is the state's biggest district, with about 50,000 students. Its plan for the almost $60 million in funding it received focuses on systemic change for the district. One of the reforms the district has instituted is hiring 10 middle school career guides who help students write their own class and career plans so they can focus on the correct subjects during high school.

"None of that would have gone into place without the funding," said Ed Graff, assistant superintendent for instruction.

ASD is also spending a large portion of the ARRA money, about $12.5 million, on improving its network. The money will be used to increase Internet bandwidth and install wireless in instructional buildings.

One difficulty with receiving ARRA funds is making sense of the federal rules that accompany every dollar. ARRA money funneled through Title I must follow its rules, for example.

"It's very, very complex," said ASD superintendent Carol Comeau, who also said if her district decides to continue any of the ongoing programs or positions it instituted using the ARRA money it will have to cut money from elsewhere in the budget.

The Nome School District spends about $750,000 a year, a significant portion of its budget, on powering and lighting its schools. Oil burned in Nome must be brought in by barge.

Out of the money Nome is receiving, it is spending $30,000 on an energy management study that will find inefficiencies in the district's energy system.

Nome superintendent Jon Wehde said the study will look at the lighting in the gym and the school's parking lots, and installing digital meters that will show accurate energy consumption and turn off lights that aren't being used.

The district will also switch its light bulbs to LED, which Wehde said will immediately provide savings of 60 percent.

"That's the kind of long-term solutions that we want to put stimulus money against," Wehde said. "We wouldn't be anywhere out of the blocks yet without the stimulus money."

The Nome district has 655 students, split between two Nome schools located about five miles apart, one for kindergarten through sixth grade and the other for seventh through 12th grade.

Hundreds of miles east of Nome, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District made professional development one of the goals for its stimulus funding.

"In terms of short-term investment, that's one of the ways you can get the best bang for your buck, because if you can increase the skill and knowledge of your teachers they will retain that knowledge long after the funding is gone," said Traci Gatewood, the district's director of grants and special projects.