Grant Monies Decrease for the Vernon School District

The Vernon School District is looking at less money received from grants this year than last, but district officials realize this is a “sign of the times.”

Supervisor of Assessments and Grants Gerald Griffin recently presented the annual grants report to the board of education. Griffin said that the district is seeing an approximate $1.6 million decrease ($5,139,462 to $3,580,743) in entitlement and competitive grant monies for 2011-2012 from last year.

Griffin explained that much of the loss is from temporary stimulus funding the board received which was spearhead to assist creating jobs from the federal government. “Beyond the stimulus grants, the regular entitlement and competitive grants have gone down in and of themselves,” Griffin said.

“I think that’s a sign of the times,” Griffin said. “Federal money is also decreasing.”

Entitlement grants are received “based on government formulas using such factors as: special education students, students in need of English language acquisition, and number of students receiving free or reduced lunch,” written in a letter by Griffin to Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway and provided in the board of education information packet.

Assistant Superintendent Deborah Murasso confirmed that monies are decreasing for Title I, IDEA, and Carl Perkins funding during the presentation. This year’s entitlements grants decreased from $3,039,616 in 2010-2011 to $2,126,390 in 2011-2012. The following entitlement grants have decreased:

1. Title I Part A - $28,109
2. Title II Part A - $23,066
3. ARRA IDEA Part B - $861,448
4. Carl Perkins - $9,458
5. MCC College and Career Pathways - $2,260

There are some increases to Title III funding ($3,140) and Drop Out Prevention ($5,000) to make up for the reductions of other entitlement grants, according to Griffin’s letter.

Vernon Adult Education is also seeing a reduction. Grants come from local boards of education (there are 14 towns that participate in the regional adult educational system), state funding and foundations, according to Griffin’s letter. There are two types of grants – competitive and mandatory. This year there is $280,424 in competitive grants and $958,994 in mandatory grants. Last year the monies totaled $1,905,113. This year there is a $665,695 reduction. There was also a reduction of competitive grants totaling $6,777 for adult education.

Some of the reduction in monies relates to Manchester no longer being a part of the region as well. But Conway informed the board that Wethersfield has agreed to join the region, which will allow for additional grant monies in the future.

Griffin also explained to the board that Vernon also receives grant services.

“We receive many competitive grants that provide for professional development training for teachers, educational programs for students, and some instructional materials,” Griffin wrote. “Most of these do not provide direct dollars to Vernon, but greatly enrich our program offerings to students and teachers. These grants support programs in art, science, social studies, technology, and literacy.”

For instance if students attend a museum, sometimes the museum absorbs the entrance costs. “There are a lot of competitive grants out there that are services,” Griffin said. “It’s real money even though it isn’t dollars. Its value is given to the educational system in Vernon.”

District officials did not seem alarmed by the reductions, but realize that with the economy the way it is, this is something that probably will not change.

 “The word that we are getting is that this will continue,” Griffin said.