Grants leave rural schools out in the cold Competition is tough, small staffs struggle with deadlines and standards

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

It's just possible that, sometimes, a big bureaucracy can be a good thing.

Look at what happens when the mammoth Clark County School District and, say, the little Churchill County School District compete for state grants.

Clark County has an entire department dedicated to writing grant proposals and evaluating the programs that are funded. School staff are trained regularly in how to carefully fill out applications and craft essays pitching proposals that would benefit from extra state and federal money.

Churchill County has, well let's see ... no one.

And so maybe it's of little surprise that the Churchill County School District the other day missed out on the chance for nearly $345,000 in state grants because its application landed three days late. Someone in the district office who was asked to fill out the application misread the deadline date.

And Clark County walked off with $6.8 million in additional state help for various programs.

So it goes in the world of state education grants: Nevada's smaller, rural districts are at a disadvantage when it comes to applying for them, because they must compete against the larger districts where personnel are better prepared to meet the demands of the application process.

In a business where there's no margin for deficient or tardy grant applications, knowing what you're doing in filling them out because it's your full-time job can make all the difference.

"If this were a federal grant or any other competitive funds, you either get the application in on time or they don't review it," said Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction. "Otherwise, it's not fair to the ones who did get their materials in on time."

Churchill's situation is evidence of the hard line being taken by the commission appointed by the governor to distribute nearly $70 million in school improvement grants approved by legislators this year for the current biennium. Individual campuses were awarded $56 million in June as part of the first round of allocations. Last month the commission announced the recipients of more than $17.5 million in "consortium" grants, given to teams of schools, regions and districts.

In this process, the smaller districts tend to struggle to keep up.

Rheault said one of the rural district's applications was poorly written and incomplete in several key areas, making it impossible for the commission to evaluate it.

"Because this is a competitive process, we couldn't say, 'Well, we'll just give you a break,' " Rheault said. "At the same time we know it's not easy for the small districts to get everything done."

As for the Churchill County's missed deadline for money to help pay for literacy programs and expanded high school courses?

"We're not making excuses," Superintendent Carolyn Ross said. "This was a very human error by a competent, hard-working individual who was stretched too thin."

Churchill serves about 4,500 students at eight campuses in Fallon, all within a three-mile radius.

Clark County, the nation's fifth-largest school district, has more than 314,000 students and nearly 350 campuses.

The Commission on Educational Excellence - three teachers, two administrators, two principals and one parent chosen by Gov. Jim Gibbons - awarded the grants. Rheault serves on the commission and reviews applications, but does not vote on allocations.

If any unspent money is returned to the commission, Rheault said , he would suggest it be distributed to the rural districts that will otherwise receive no funding for school improvement and innovation. There may also be ways for the state to better help districts struggling with the grant-writing process, Rheault said .

Although the state's 17 districts are all seeking money from the same pot, that doesn't mean the process has become cutthroat or hostile. Ross said Clark County has been nothing but supportive, pointing her staff toward resources and answering questions related to the grant-writing process both at the state and national level.

"Generally speaking , they are very caring and sharing," Ross said. "They mentor us unselfishly."

Diane Efthimou, director of grants and administration for the Clark County School District, said each of the local schools completes its own applications for the state grants, as required by the law. The district's central office is allowed to look over the school's shoulder, providing backup material and reviewing the numbers.

Throughout the year, her office - which includes eight grant writers and six evaluators - holds well-attended workshops for district educators looking to improve their grant-writing skills.

Clark County this year sought $14.8 million in grants. The $6.8 million it got will go for a variety of programs, including teacher training, student mentoring and intensive literacy programs.

On the other hand, Churchill was one of four rural districts - Esmeralda, Nye and Storey were the others - that received no grants in the latest round of allocations.

As was the case after the announcement of prior allocations, some schools are celebrating while others are fuming.

"Most of us are satisfied we got something," said Charlene Green, Clark County's associate superintendent of student support services, who helped coordinate the consortium grant applications. "There are those of us that certainly had larger plans that did not get funded. There's no appeals process, but people are making their feelings known."