Schools in the race for federal grants

The race is on for Florida school districts to garner millions of federal grant dollars for underperforming schools with a catch that includes giving federal and state governments more control to reform schools.

Following the Hernando County School Board's approval to apply for the national Race To The Top grant last week, Eric Williams, district grant proposal writer, said Hernando County has the potential to garner about $2.2 million a year for four years.

He said that amount is based on how much Florida garners overall from the $4.35 billion being sought by other states.

If federal funding is approved for Hernando County, Williams said school officials would be required to implement changes to improve school performance - particularly for underperforming schools.

As part of the grant proposal processes, state officials earlier this week identified Hernando and Central high schools among the lowest performing schools in the state - dropping from a preventative measure category in 2008 to a corrective measure category in 2009.

According to the Florida Department of Education's Web site, schools in corrective measures "require substantial, targeted assistance in order to successfully meet adequate yearly progress requirements."

Money will be distributed based on the amount of poverty in the school district - measured by the number of students receiving free or reduced lunches.

While the grant money would help provide additional technology resources, offer incentives to quality teachers to work in underperforming schools and implement other programs and reorganization measures, Williams said there is little wiggle room on where much of the money is spent.

By accepting the grant money, he said school district officials would be required to implement changes in schools that include:

• Possibly lengthening school days - or the year into the summer months.

• Moving higher performing teachers to lower performing schools (with additional incentives).

• Tying student performance with teacher evaluations.

Williams said student performance would be measured using multiple assessments - not just the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test - to gauge their overall improvement.

While Williams said he understands Board Member John Sweeney's comments during the last board meeting about not trusting more government control over schools, he said going along with the federal standards would put the district ahead.

"The thing is, these are all things that we're moving toward anyway," Williams said. "And through this, we could streamline all these different assessments and accountability measures."

For example, through the federal guidelines, he said teachers with a high number of failing students wouldn't be receiving reviews - a practice Williams said has irked state lawmakers in the past - and tenure wouldn't only be based on the number of years employed, but on their performance as an educator as well.

Meanwhile, Williams said Hernando County is one of the first school districts in the state to commit to the funding program.

He said school officials won't know whether they'll receive funding until later in 2010.

However, whether Florida receives money will also be based on whether more school districts also commit. So far, he said there are a number where officials have refused to do so.

"This has kind of come at them quick and people just aren't sure about it," Williams said. "If not as many school districts take part, the windfall to the county could be much more. However, the feds say that it could hurt our chances to receive any funding at all, so we'll see."