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DeKalb school leaders present consolidated district plan, board asks for clearer needs-assessment details
Summary
District grants manager presented the Consolidated District Plan outlining federal funding priorities and required alignment with district goals; board members requested clearer documentation of the needs-assessment methods and asked for more detail about possible federal grant cuts, including one NIU-funded school-psychology cohort.
Emma Farini, the district grants manager, told the DeKalb CUSD 428 Board of Education that the Consolidated District Plan "is a framework that guides how we plan to use our federal funding" and that ISBE must have an approved plan before reviewing federal grant applications.
Board members and staff walked through the plan's role in aligning Title I, II, III, IV and IDEA funds to the district's strategic goals. Farini said the CDP "is a single plan for multiple funding sources" and emphasized it is not itself a grant application or a local funding report.
The discussion centered on the plan's needs assessment and community-stakeholder inputs. Board members said the published CDP did not explain how parent surveys and other data were collected and requested a school-by-school summary of methods and response rates. Christopher Lloyd noted that some acronyms in the document were not defined for a public audience and asked for more accessible documentation. Farini and staff said the needs assessment is included in the linked document but agreed to produce a clearer, compiled methods summary by school.
Board members also raised questions about possible reductions to federal grant allocations. Farini said allocations are announced annually and the district expects funding, but exact dollar amounts were not yet known. District staff reported one immediate example of grant funding loss: a Northern Illinois University program that subsidized cohorts of staff pursuing school psychologist credentials will lose funding in December, affecting staff and future recruitment. District staff said contingency planning is underway but concrete details await state and federal decisions.
Board members agreed to return the CDP for formal approval at the next meeting after staff prepare the requested clarifications, including a school-level methods summary of parent-survey administration and clearer definitions inside the CDP.
