Schools may get $8 mil. in fed funds

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Sept. 8, 2003 | 11 a.m.

While it's been criticized by some politicians and educators as an unfunded mandate, the federal No Child Left Behind Act is expected to show Clark County schools at least some of the money -- nearly $8 million, in fact.

The amount the district expects to receive is only a slight increase over last year's federal allotment for class-size reduction and barely covers increased enrollment, said Brad Reitz, assistant superintendent of student support services for the Clark County School District.

The difference this year is that the federal money may be spent on more than just class-size reduction, Reitz said.

"Before we were locked in and couldn't use the dollars for anything else," Reitz said. "Now we can put some of it toward recruiting, training and keeping highly qualified teachers and administrators. That flexibility is very good news for us, and it's a direct result of No Child Left Behind."

The federal law, which took effect in 2002, calls for school districts to show yearly gains in academic achievement, with all students showing proficiency by 2014. The law also requires schools have only "highly qualified" teachers in every classroom by 2006.

Allen Coles, superintendent of the district's southwest region, said the federal funds for teacher and principal training are badly needed. For the past few years the region has been working on a project known as Best Practices in Literacy, where the more successful teachers are surveyed about their classroom techniques, and the results are shared with other educators, Coles said.

"We ask them exactly what it is they're doing and their answers then become our best practices," Coles said. "But you need money to share those ideas, you need money to be able to set aside regular times set for those kinds of discussions and collaboration."

Edward Goldman, superintendent of the district's southeast region, said No Child Left Behind has been full of admirable initiatives, but not enough have come with the funds needed to carry them out. Broadening the list of what federal class-size reduction money can be used for is a step in the right direction, Goldman said.

The Clark County School Board is slated to review the request for federal funds when it meets Thursday.

Of the $7 million, $4.4 million will go toward class size reduction programs, including hiring 93 teachers and paying for substitutes.

Other planned expenditures: