Do Grant Funds Count?
Last week I complained to a friend that PPS is hiring another central office employee to work in communications. The position reports to Lolenzo Poe and it’s funded through a school choice grant. My friend reminded me that PPS doesn’t consider grant money to be real money so the position doesn’t count.
Do you think grant funds should count? Should the district be held to the same or a different standard for the use of grant funds as opposed to general funds?
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What exactly is a “school choice grant”? To what extent does the grant control how the money is spent? I would need answers to those questions before I can form an opinion on the rest of it.
Zarwen, Most PPS grants do control how the grant is supposed to be spent (not that it means anything to PPS) but my question is different. In general, should PPS administration be held accountable (by the public) for how they spend all of their their money?
I don’t think they should be able to treat grant funds like play money. They should be held accountable for all funds. The grants are there to provide some sort of support not being offered through general funds. If their use is unimportant, why have them anyway? One thing the public can do is to find out what grants PPS holds and read those grants.
Years ago, PPS had a large 3-year math and science grant that was supposed to be used to close the math/science achievement gap for minority students. The head of the PPS math department was submitting annual reports that contained flat out lies. He reported that PPS no longer offered high school math classes below Algebra except for students with disabilities. A quick search through high school schedules showed middle school math at most of the schools. He also reported that all high school students were using the same math textbooks but again it was untrue. Once the grant ended, the problem was still there and PPS had to use general funds to address a larger problem.
Why are they not accountable to the grantors? I remember back when Vicki Phillips was Superintendent, the feds pulled a grant because she was not using the money as intended. Don’t any other grantors do the same?
Zarwen, This is what PPS said about the school choice grant in January 2008:
“Portland Public Schools has received one of 14 highly competitive grants from the U.S. Department of Education to prepare at-risk students for college and help parents navigate the school choice system. Funding from the five-year Voluntary Public School Choice grant also will explore expanding or replicating successful programs in the school district.
PPS received a Voluntary Public School Choice grant in 2002 and for the past five years has used the money to offer support services to students who transferred from No Child Left Behind-designated schools to other schools in the district. That first grant also helped improve the school choice lottery system technology.
The second grant, through 2012, brings almost $6.5 million to support several aspects of school choice, including developing key partnerships with higher education to ensure that more at-risk students graduate from high school and move on to college.
In addition, Portland Public Schools will emphasize more direct and targeted outreach to parents to provide information on all PPS schools and how parents can navigate the school choice system. Teachers and staff will receive professional development opportunities that focus on helping transfer students who are struggling in their new schools, as well as those students facing challenges in their neighborhood schools.
The school district also will begin reviewing programs located in schools — whether focus option programs or supports such as mentoring and tutoring — to analyze their success with students, with potential replication or expansion to other schools.
Underlying the current grant-funded efforts are two themes: thorough evaluation of all programs to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, and reaching families, including non-English speakers, to ensure they have data to make informed school choices for their students.
The second phase of the grant is a collaboration involving numerous district departments. Project Director Kelley Duron has extensive service with the district, most recently as manager of the district’s Northside Family Support Center. The grant program is managed and supervised through the Enrollment and Transfer Center and the Office of Student, Family and School Support.
For additional information, contact Kelley Duron at 503-916-3391.”
Carrie: Thanks for the information on the Voluntary Public School Choice Grant. In regards to the qualifications of the VPSC Grant Manager, Kelley Duron served a little over one year as Manager of the Northside Familly Support Center 2006-2007 and then was given the job as the grant manager. She is in no way has extensive service with the district. Prior than that, she worked for one year as a SUN service coordinator for IRCO. Her background was a technical writer for Pacific Power Corps for many years. Earlier this year, she was on the slate to be laid off but she fought and got to get her job back. Apparently, her superior, Mr. Cliff Brush was not too impressed with her performance. The grant was supposed to be focused on helping low-income and ESL families understand school choice, make the right decision for their kids to attend the right schools and support students who transfer from low-performing schools to high-performing schools. ESL families have been traditionally underserved at PPS and I believe the same applies with the implementation of this grant.
As to the new position, School Choice and Family Engagement Coordinator, the grant is to pay for this position but there is very little connection between the purpose of the grant and this position. This new position is to support an existing position: Community and Family Engagement Manager under Lolenzo Poe. Again, Voluntary Public School Choice was paying for this Manager’s position for the last two years but the work this manager did during this time had nothing to do with the grant. Ms. Duron has readily admitted this. So there are several issues we need to ask: 1. Is PPS using the grant money properly? 2. Should the district consider grant money and use the same budgetary restriction standards as other monies?
Sounds like the grantors need to have more specific rules about what the money can be used for. AND do the necessary follow-up to be sure that it is. Maybe they should take a lesson from the PSF!
Here is a link to the article about the federal grant that was pulled:
http://wweek.com/editorial/3343/9520/
Note that the feds weren’t exactly forthcoming either.
Maybe it’s time to contact the feds again…the Voluntary Public School Choice Program lists one of the objectives as “Add two focus options per year within geographically targeted areas and increase the high school graduation rate across the school district and in the targeted schools (Jefferson, Marshall and Roosevelt).” Closing Marshall doesn’t increase school choice and it’s certainly not “voluntary”. The grant says “add” options not replace. For the first time in years, all 3 schools on the Marshall campus made AYP. Why screw with that now?
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