Board to vote next week on $3.89 million Title I plan serving 15 schools

The Board of Education will consider approval next week of the district's 2025'1026 Title I plan, a $3,894,830 proposal that staff said will serve 15 schools and pay primarily for additional staff and family-engagement activities.

Jonathan Rybick, who presented the plan to the board, said, "This year, we will have 15 schools to be served with title 1 funds," and added that the plan adds East Middle School for 2025''6.

The plan matters because most of the $3.89 million is earmarked for positions: Rybick told the board the budget will pay for 11.5 certified positions and 51.5 classified positions districtwide. He said Title I funds also include set-asides for family engagement, pre-K support, services for homeless students under McKinney-Vento and an equitable share for private schools that request assistance. Rybick said, "what we say we're gonna do, we have to absolutely do it," and noted that district programs are subject to frequent state and federal audit review.

Board members and staff described how schools are grouped by poverty bands based on free-and-reduced-price lunch percentages, with the highest band (and highest per-student allocations) including MB Mills, Third Creek Elementary, Third Creek Middle, Scotts and East Elementary. Rybick said the district takes the free-and-reduced data from March of the previous year when calculating allocations.

Rybick told the board the Title I allocation this year is down $58,007.99 from the prior year; he said the change was a smaller decrease than in recent years, and that Title I was not subject to the temporary freeze that affected Titles II, III and IV. He described budget components the schools may use for staffing, programs and supplies, and said carryover from the prior year helps start staffing before federal funds arrive.

Board members asked for clarifications about allowable uses. Rybick explained that homeless-student funds can pay for transportation, field trips and clothing, while neglected-and-delinquent funds support tutoring and programs to help those students catch up. He said the family-engagement column on school budgets is a required pot of funds each Title I school must use for parent outreach and events.

District staff noted the plan preserves a small unbudgeted amount to respond to midyear needs or sudden enrollment changes; Rybick said those funds help if a Title I school has an unexpected influx of students and needs a teacher or program midyear. He also said federal law forbids using Title I to supplant local funding and that the district must document comparability and program activity for audits.

The board did not vote on the plan at the meeting; Rybick asked the board to schedule approval for next week and said he would answer further questions at that meeting.

Less urgent details: the Title I packet the board received included per-school budgets and the district's total expense breakdown; Rybick said most of the budget is for staffing and that schools determine how to use their allotments within Title I rules.

Provenance: The Title I presentation began when the agenda item was introduced and ran through the subsequent Q&A with board members.