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Community corrections director secures multiple FY26 grants and reports budget fixes
Summary
Atchison County Community Corrections reported reconciled ledger problems and secured commission approval for several FY2026 grant actions, including a $335,559 adult comprehensive plan grant and a $275,478.73 juvenile comprehensive plan grant.
Catherine Sparks, director of Community Corrections, told the Atchison County Commission on March 11 that she is submitting multiple FY2026 grant applications and that the department has corrected bookkeeping issues affecting prior fiscal years.
Sparks asked the commission to approve the FY2026 adult comprehensive plan grant, a FY2026 juvenile comprehensive plan grant and an FY2026–27 juvenile evidence‑based programs grant. The board moved, seconded and approved the requests. The adult comprehensive plan grant totals $335,559, with $3,223 identified by Sparks as direct client‑services funding; the juvenile comprehensive plan grant totals $275,478.73. Sparks also sought and obtained commission authorization for the chair to sign the juvenile comprehensive plan signature page.
Sparks described a new Evidence Based Programs grant application for $232,940 to fund expanded youth services and a proposed case‑manager position to help families follow through on referrals made at intake. She said the program would aim to coordinate juvenile services across the courts, Department for Children and Families and USD 409 to avoid overloading families with multiple, competing service referrals.
On financial housekeeping, Sparks reported the department had reconciled a longstanding issue in its workbooks: KDOC had attributed a general ledger amount that did not belong to community corrections to the department’s accounts; Sparks, county finance staff and KDOC have corrected the records. As of mid‑February Sparks reported the adult account balance was $228,158 and the adult reimbursement account balance was $252,905; juvenile grant balances were $153,799 and reimbursement $55,906 (figures given to the commission for prior reporting periods). She also reported quarterly grant expenditures and noted a pending third‑quarter budget adjustment submission to KDOC.
The commission approved a motion allowing the chair to sign a KDOC Division of Juvenile Services third‑quarter budget adjustment report; the transcript includes a numeric amount for that item but the figure was not clearly formatted in the record.
Sparks said the department’s FY2024 workbooks are closed and the FY2025 quarters submitted to KDOC are under review; she also said she is considering two additional grants—a regional collaboration request and a governor’s office grant to support jail‑based programming—and will return with details if she applies.
