The Prince William County School Board has passed a resolution asking the BOCS for permission to apply for federal Education Jobs Fund money to hire teachers in the current school year. The county school system ended up with an additional 807 students for the current school year which made the current teacher shortage even more severe. The cost for this many students is just under $8.7 million, or just under $11,000 per pupil.
According to News and Messenger:
Prince William County Public Schools has been allocated about $17 million through the Federal Education Jobs Fund Program, but the school division can’t use that money unless the county approves it.
The School Board voted 7 to 1 Wednesday to ask the Board of County Supervisors to allocate $5.8 million of the federal money to the school division in the current school year to help pay the costs for the additional students who enrolled. The other $2.9 million needed would come from state funding.
Neabsco District representative Lisa Bell cast the dissenting vote.
The School Board’s resolution also proposes discussing what to do with the remaining $11.2 million in federal money during its budget process for fiscal 2012.
In August, the Board of County Supervisors passed a resolution stating that they would not address the federal education jobs fund money until the fiscal 2012 budget process.
The School Board is hoping they will change their mind.
One has to question Ms. Bell. What plan does she have to pay for educating over 800 more students? Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what the current BOCS does in response to the School Board resolution. Last August the BOCS got hysterical because they thought Superintendent Walts was issuing contracts to teachers without permission from them to take stimulus money. They called an emergency meeting even though Corey Stewart, Maureen Caddigan and John Jenkins were out of town.
