Mood:  bright

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 is making an impact on Wichita Public Schools. New grants are being approved right and left and my office is simply humming with activity on top of all the normal activity that keeps me jumping this time of year.

Just today we were notified 'unofficially' that the district has received $118,130 in ARRA for the expansion of our AmeriCorps Growing Responsible Achievers & School Program (GRASP) program. Currently, the district has 24 people who are paid stipends through the GRASP program who work in our Title I schools while they attend college. They are displaced people, or people who were unemployed and need to be retrained and are looking for jobs in education. These 24 people work with children who need assistance with reading. The GRASP program is like a Grow Your Own Paraeducator or Teacher program. The success rate for participants is very high and most become fully employed by the this district if not other districts in our area as paraeducators (if they attend only 2 years of college) or as teachers if they finish their 4 year education and gain a teaching certificate.

The expansion ARRA grant adds 8 new positions in the GRASP program who are going to focus on children with disabilities who have parents that are either illiterate or are English Language Learners - they can read in their native language but not in English. It is difficult for children of parents who cannot read English to flourish in public schools without extra help. This expansion will coordinate with our current Family Literacy program and expand it for another year. Hopefully, by the end of this expansion program, those people will want to go into educaitonal careers permanently and will join the ranks of our growing highly qualified paraeducators.

Just last month we received confirmation that the district will be getting nearly $19.5 million in ARRA for Title I schools. Due to this extra money, schools that met Title I criteria in our district that we didn't have the money to fund will now get funding. These bubble schools will get the additional extra help and equipment the have been lacking. It is fabulous and I am so happy that both schools our children attend will be getting more funding for their programs!

Last week our Lunch Program submitted a grant for about $217K for additional equipment funded by the ARRA. Should we get this grant, it would definately help our lunch program which eeks by. Our district's lunch program receives federal funding through the National Lunch Program, but that money is only used for food. All the equipment has to come from other funds. Considering that the district has over 67% free and reduced lunch enrollment for our 49,000 children, the lunch program gets most of its money from the National reimbursement. This has only increased as the massive layoffs in the airline manufacturing sector have hit Wichita. Thank goodness the mortgage crisis didn't occur here, although we have seen a tremendous increase in homeless children (nearly triple the amount). So, this equipment money will be good so that the necessary equipment can be replaced, and funding that would have been diverted into the cost of food can be used to replace failing equipment.

On top of that, our Homeless Child Youth program is poised to receive over $133K in ARRA funding if our other grant gets approved. Like I said, we've tripled in the homeless population due to the financial crisis. This money will certainly help children in need of clothing, transportation, and other needs unemployment or welfare dollars can't be stretched to cover.

So - good use of ARRA is happening at Wichita Public Schools, and I am proud that my tax dollars are helping to fund it!