Jamestown Public Schools officials are "anxious" to see how much of the nearly $700 million dollars in Race to the Top funding will be awarded to the district.
Daniel Kathman, district superintendent, spoke to the school board during its meeting Tuesday night about the criteria to be awarded an amount of the money.
"We are obligated to submit a proposal to the state Education Department," he said. "We are anxious to see what that criteria is."
Among the programs that could benefit from this money, Kathman said he was anxious to see how the current school improvement initiatives could be expanded by using Race to the Top funding.
"There are a number of different criteria that vary from use of achievement data systems to improving instruction, in particular professional development to improve teacher and principal skill," he said. "So that is why I say I am anxious to marry and expand if we can, our current school-improvement initiative, built around the professional learning communities model. In part if we can do that with Race to the Top dollars, or more of it, that would be great."
Kathman also spoke about the Education Jobs Fund allocation, which was reported by Dale Weatherlow, assistant superintendent for administration, to be $973,262 for the district. This money can be used to, "hire new employees, cover the expense of recalled employees and to save jobs," Kathman said.
He explained that there is much more flexibility in how the money can be used than was previously thought. He explained that the money can be used between Aug. 10, 2010, through September 2012 allowing, "latitude over two school years," he said.
"We were waiting for Albany to define our allocation, and it turns out it is very close to what Sen. Schumer predicted," he said. "We are taking a measured approach to that award, for the guidance that we received with that gives us much more flexibility in opportunity to use those dollars but also in time to dedicate them. We have a full two school years and an additional summer to make use of those funds, and I am sure we will be in a position to take advantage of them."
Kathman also explained to the board during an informal presentation that all positions for the district have been staffed except for two physical education positions, which are in the interview process.
He showed pictures of the capital projects occurring throughout the district, and explained that construction crews are almost finished and are being followed by the cleaning crews, and the buildings should be ready for school to start on Sept. 2.
"We have changed the entrance of Jamestown High School at the front door location, making it a more secure and efficient process," he said. "But we have done a number of redesign and remodeling things at the high school as it relates to office space in particular, some teacher office space as well. We are very happy to report that the high school auditorium is finally repaired. We had a problem with loose plaster in the ceiling, and that has been repaired and completely repainted and recarpeted and it looks great. So there is a whole variety of things that have happened both at the high school and Persell. But the summer construction season is now coming to a close just in time for our cleaning crew to get ready so teachers and students can reoccupy."
A new mural on the outside of Rogers Elementary School has also been completed.