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Board weighs creating centralized grant-writing capacity after staff report $19 million in awards
Summary
Trustees discussed whether to hire a district grant writer or centralize grant management after staff said Antioch Unified obtained roughly $19 million in grants over three years while spending about $73,000 on outside grant-writing services; trustees asked staff to return with coordinated data on grant applications, carryovers and administrative burden.
Antioch Unified trustees spent an extended portion of the meeting discussing the district pproach to applying for and managing grants, including whether to create a centralized grant-writing function or hire a grant writer.
Christine, a district staff member, told the board that over the last three years the district has collected "almost $19 million in Grants" and that the district had paid roughly $73,000 to outside vendors for grant-writing services. "What we've liked about working with the grant writing agencies is that often times they will assign them to different people depending upon their area of expertise," she said, while also flagging a recent decline in award rates for some federal programs.
Trustees focused on operational trade-offs: while external vendors have helped secure multi-million-dollar awards, managing multiple time-limited grants places administrative and audit burdens on educational services and business office staff. Trustees asked whether program results and provider reports are centralized and whether the district can demonstrate outcomes across grants. Staff said providers collect service-level data and can produce summary reports; staff said some centralized analysis is possible and offered to return with more organized, district-level information.
Board members also discussed sustainability challenges: many grants are one-time or multi-year awards that require local matches or create ongoing service expectations after grant funding ends. One trustee noted the district needs clarity about which programs the board wants to sustain if grant funding sunsets.
The board directed staff to compile more detailed information about grants the district currently manages, the administrative costs of managing them, carryover and expiration timelines, and options and costs for a centralized grant-writing and grant-management infrastructure.
