Stimulus in action...

Stimulus funds helping Camden schools

An infusion of stimulus funding is helping Camden County schools stay afloat financially, saving jobs and programs.

Because of its own budget problems, the state may reduce the more than $6.4 million it had planned to forward to the district, Superintendent Will Hardin said.

So far, the district has received $2.6 million of the $3.7 million it was scheduled to receive from the state to apply toward its overall budget. In addition, the district is set to receive nearly $938,000 in Title I grants, $46,000 for school lunch equipment, $56,000 for preschool programs and about $1.7 million for special education programs.

Some of the stimulus money is used to fund salaries for 19 teachers the next two years, school officials said.

"It's being sent to us piecemeal," Hardin said. "We submit requests, and they reimburse us."

When the school board was preparing its budget for the current year, there were concerns that programs would be cut and teachers could lose their jobs.

Sixteen high-seniority employees, including two principals, 13 teachers and a guidance counselor, accepted early retirements last year as a way to save lower-paying teachers' jobs.

Former St. Marys Middle School Principal Jo Beth Bird said her decision to retire last year - at least four years before she intended - probably saved two or three teaching jobs.

In all, administrators cut 43 positions through retirement, attrition and increased class size. There are now about two additional students in each class.

In an earlier interview, Board of Education Chairman Herb Rowland said the district's student-teacher ratio is still below the state average.

He said every department made sacrifices to have minimal impact on teachers, students and programs.

Hardin said he and other administrators would have been forced to either raise school taxes or cut more teaching positions without the stimulus money.

"The cuts to personnel would have been deeper," he said. "It has helped us save some jobs."

 

 

Posted via email from Jim Nichols