The Devil is in the Details

From the BCCT. Morrisville can use $441,000. No one disputes that. The question is *how* or *where* to spend the money.

SCHOOL STIMULUS MONEY
Devil of package is in details
School districts won’t know the regulations for spending the money until June.
By HILARY BENTMAN and JOAN HELLYER

Area school districts will get a slice of the president’s $787 billion stimulus package, but just how much, under what conditions, and for how long remains unclear.

It has left local school administrators scratching their heads and waiting for answers to questions that mount daily.

“It’s complicated,” said Eileen Kelliher, spokeswoman for the Bristol Township School District, which is scheduled to receive almost $3 million over two years to educate low income and special education students.

“In June, we will get the administrative regulations that tell us what we can use it for and then we will be able to plan,” Kelliher said.

The devil, they say, is in the details, agreed Dave Matyas, business administrator for the Central Bucks School District. “We don’t know the details and you never know for sure what strings come attached,” he said.

Under new estimates recently released, Central Bucks could see $3.4 million from the federal bill to be used over a two-year period.

The stimulus package is providing school districts with Title I and IDEA money.

Title I helps districts that have high concentrations of students from low-income families. Most area schools use their allotment for remediation. But only eight area districts are eligible for the additional money under the stimulus package.

IDEA, or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, funding is often used for special education, an area of school budgets that continues to increase. The money is given to the state and redistributed to the districts.

Both Title I and IDEA grants can be used to fund existing programs, said Melissa Salmanowitz, spokeswoman for the House Education and Labor Committee, which released the estimates.

“They can use the money however they see fit, as long as it’s in accordance with the law,” she said.

But just how much of an impact the money will have on local districts is hazy.

Pennsbury, which could receive almost $2.5 million for special education expenses, isn’t making any plans for the money until district officials find out from the state how the money can be spent, spokeswoman Ann Langtry said.

Bob Reichert, business manager in Hatboro-Horsham, expects his district won’t see much in the way of increased state revenue this year, so new federal funding may only “help sustain what we received in the past.”

“A lot of it is going to be onetime funds, a shot in the arm,” he added. Hatboro-Horsham is estimated to receive about $1.1 million over two years.

Additionally, estimates show Pennsylvania will get about $1.9 billion in fiscal stabilization money, which can be used for school construction, renovations and to help districts make ends meet.

Those funds will be distributed by the state Department of Education, where officials are working on the parameters for allocation, said spokesman Michael Race.

The education department told the state’s 501 school districts last month to compile wish-lists of shovel-ready projects in preparation for the stimulus package. Shovel-ready projects are those that can begin in six months and immediately put people to work.

Bensalem is putting together its wish list, Superintendent James Lombardo told school board members last week, with hopes that some of the money could be used to cover renovations in the coming school year.

Palisades School District officials already compiled their list. It includes new roofs for a couple of schools and relocating the varsity baseball and softball fields.

How quickly some of those projects can be funded and whether the stimulus will help reduce the property tax burden in the coming school year is unclear as the state waits for the money to roll in.