Part of $3.7 million to pay for 8 teachers, 17 parapros for 2 years

The Fayette County School System expects to get federal money soon to hire eight teachers and 17 parapros, with the understanding that the money is good only for two years.

It’s part of $3.747 million in two-year federal stimulus flow-through money to be used for special education and general education activities, including the hiring of a number of teachers and parapros.

Responding to a question by board member Marion Key on what would happen to the new positions after the two years of stimulus funding, Exceptional Children’s Services Director Chris Horton said the school system hoped to use the parapros in a collaborative manner so that the positions could become ingrained into an earning formula and become self-supporting after two years.

“Hopefully, things will change economically,” Comptroller Laura Brock added.

Following up on Key’s question, board member Bob Todd said, “In fairness we need to let (the new teachers and parapros) know up front that these positions are for two years. We don’t want them to get a sense of entitlement.”

The federal funds will be split between IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) activities and ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) activities. The school board Monday voted 4-0 to allocate the funds.

Of the $3.747 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, the school system would designate $1.403 million next year for IDEA activities and $723,500 the following year, for a total of $2.127 million.

A significant portion of those funds would go toward the hiring of 17 new collaborative parapros and four new teachers for the next two years. Four other specialized teachers also will be hired.

Rounding out the special education stimulus funding for the two-year period will be expenditures such as $322,216 for reading adoption, $100,000 for technology improvements, $170,000 for pre-school buses, $175,000 for proportionate share money for private schools and $40,000 for staff development.

Board members were told that the school system should expect receipt of stimulus funds very soon so that hiring for the upcoming school year can commence.

ESEA expenditures will total $1,399,700 during the next two years. A significant portion of the funds will be used for the hire of four instructional support teachers (IST) at a cost of $614,000 over two years. The IST positions were previously eliminated during recent budget cutbacks.

Also allocated was $500,000 for staff development and $285,700 for various intervention programs for reading and math.

A balance of $220,300 remains after the IDEA and ESEA allocations. Those funds are targeted for the purchase of numerous instructional materials that exist largely in an electronic format.

A portion of the stimulus funds could be used for purchases that are covered by 1-cent sales tax revenues that began being collected in April. School system finance staff in recent months began to scale back previous expectations on the amount of revenue that might be generated by the sales tax in light of the recession.