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Lewiston schools outline plans to use federal ESEA carryover as some titles face delay
Summary
District federal programs coordinator Jenny Darigan told the Lewiston School Committee that the district will use ESEA carryover funds to bridge a short-term federal funding delay and presented priorities tied to the consolidated Title I–IV application.
Jenny Darigan, Lewiston Public Schools’ district federal programs coordinator, briefed the Lewiston School Committee on the district’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funding status and proposed uses of carryover funds for the 2025–26 school year.
Darigan said Title I funding was not part of a recent federal delay and that Lewiston will receive Title I funds as planned, but the district has experienced a net decrease in Title I of $177,000 compared with last year. She described a separate delay for other ESEA titles that the district had been tracking and said those funds were released by the U.S. Department of Education the previous Friday and are now “pending” state allocation and application windows.
Darigan explained the district is preparing a consolidated application that bundles Titles I, II, III and IV. She said the district is planning conservatively on prior-year levels while awaiting state allocation notices. For Title III (multilingual learner funding) Darigan said the allocation is a per-pupil calculation and for Title IV the district has seen an upward trajectory; both Title III and Title IV allocations were described in the presentation as roughly $221,000 and $363,000 respectively. The exact Title II allocation was discussed as being planned at prior-year levels but the specific dollar figure was not specified in the meeting transcript and remains pending state confirmation.
Darigan described how the district will use funds if allocations are confirmed: Title I district projects supporting required services (equitable services for nonpublic schools, homeless programming and parent involvement) and schoolwide supports such as math and literacy interventionists and instructional materials; Title II for professional development, stipends and some school-based mental-health positions; Title III for supplemental multilingual instructional supplies and professional learning; and Title IV for STEM supplies, PowerSchool training, and social-emotional learning and restorative-practices professional development.
Darigan outlined the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) process: each school and the district maintain CNAs that drive project and budget decisions in the consolidated application. She said CNAs and project-level plans were included in the school committee packet and are posted on the district website for public review.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about the Title I decrease and how equitable-share (nonpublic school) allocations are calculated. Darigan responded that the reduction in Title I resulted from a state-level audit and a correction in the state’s disbursement methodology rather than a local census change, and that the state formula determines the share amounts for participation by nonpublic schools.
No formal committee action was taken; the presentation was informational and committee members were directed to posted CNAs and application materials for further public comment.
Darigan recommended the committee direct questions and any public input to the district’s posted application comment process while staff finalize the consolidated application to the state.
The district will update the committee after it receives the state’s allocation notice and as individual application sections open.
