District ups poverty percentage rate

PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board has approved a three-year plan that lessens the amount of Title 1-funded schools within the district.

These changes come as an attempt to not only better fund schools within high poverty areas, but also give the district some leeway in the possible penalties of individual schools not making Adequate Yearly Progress.

"With AYP, the consequences of Title 1 schools are different, we have to implement school choice -- this throws boundaries out the window," said Laurine Domke, who oversees Federal Programs for the district.

While any school or district that does not make AYP faces consequences under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools that do not make AYP for two years that qualify for Title 1 funding -- federal funds provided to supplement education opportunities to children living in high poverty areas -- must offer an alternate site for students to enroll. The district must set aside 20 percent of the total district Title 1 funds in order to pay for the transportation to the alternate schools. It is possible that a bus with as little as one student would be dispatched to meet these requirements. Individual schools must also set aside 10 percent of Title 1 funding for professional development.

"Now, instead of using Title 1 funds in the schools, we'd have to take it out and pay the penalties of not making AYP," Domke said.

The number of children on free and reduced lunch determines the poverty rate of a school's surrounding area. Each district controls what percentage rate qualifies a school to receive Title 1 funds. Traditionally, the district has used 35 percent. Since the 1999-2000 school year, the number of Title 1 schools in the Mat-Su district has jumped from 14 to 18. Using the same percentage rate, 20 schools would have poverty rates more than 35 percent for the 2004-2005 school year.

"Right now if we fund all these schools, the money is really spread out," Domke said. "Schools cannot do an effective [Title 1] program with $30,000 to $60,000."

With that amount of funding going to each school, plus the possibility of schools having to set aside funds normally used in instruction, Title 1 programs would not be as effective as the district administration and the school board would like, Domke said. This has resulted in the district re-defining the percentage rates used to determine a Title 1 school.

The district initially sought to jump the poverty rate to 50 percent for schools to be eligible for Title 1 funding for the upcoming school year -- the same percentage rate used in Anchorage -- but an outcry from the pubic has resulted in the softening of the percentage rate change over the course of three years.

For the 2004-2005 school year, the poverty rate will be 40 percent, with Palmer-area schools grandfathered in, even with a lower rate. In 2005-2006, the poverty rate will be 45 and all schools must reach or exceed that rate to qualify for Title 1 funding. For the 2006-2007 school year, the poverty rate will reach the desired 50 percent.

Twenty schools will qualify for Title 1 funds for the 2004-2005 school year. Twelve schools will see a 15 to 41 percent reduction of funds from last year, while eight schools will maintain the level of Title 1 funding from the year before.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.