Lithia Springs High Seeks Federal Grant

Despite some pointed questions by Douglas County Board of Education member D.T. Jackson, the board voted 5-0 Monday night for the school system to continue its efforts to go after a federal school improvement grant for by April 15.

District officials were made aware of their opportunity to pursue the possible $6 million, three-year grant only two weeks ago, and board members were informed last week, board member Janet Kelley of District 3 said after the 78-minute meeting.

Concerns about the school’s discipline problems, enforcing a dress code and improving parental involvement were the focus of Jackson’s questions. Jackson, who serves District 2, told Catherine Magouyrk, associate superintendent of student achievement and leadership, that more than 1,300 disciplinary actions were reported as of last month at the high school for its 1,700 students.

“Those are not isolated incidents; some are repeated incidents,” Magouyrk told Jackson. She also noted that some of the infractions dealt with dress code violations.

Jackson then wondered how the school system could enforce one dress code at Lithia Springs and have another code at the district’s other high schools.

Magouyrk said she didn’t have an immediate answer to that question but would have one for him by the April 4 board meeting.

Jackson’s questions followed Magouyrk’s roughly 10-minute presentation about the school improvement grant. The grant would provide funds to school systems that have the strongest commitment to “turn around their persistently lowest-achieving schools and significantly raise student achievement in those schools.”

Lithia Springs High qualified for grant consideration because it hasn’t made the federal No Child Left Behind mandate of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the past three years. The school’s graduation rates of 65.5 percent, 67.6 percent and 75 percent were below the national requirement of 70 percent in 2008, 75 percent in 2009 and 80 percent in 2010. The school also missed national testing targets in English/language arts and math.

Magouyrk said the state approved Douglas County using the school improvement grant’s “transformation” model, which usually requires replacing the principal. However, Lithia Springs Principal Fred Ervin would be exempt because he was hired in July and thus has spent less than two years at the position.

The transformation model also requires school systems to "identify and reward staff who are increasing student outcomes; support and then remove those who are not.” It also mandates increased staff and student learning time and an "ongoing mechanism for community and family engagement." It also requires 10 percent improvement every year in math and reading/language arts.

“I just think this is a wonderful opportunity,” said Dr. Sam Haskell, who serves District 4. “If we can implement a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program, hopefully it’ll become a magnet school, and it’ll attract more students.”

Superintendent Gordon Pritz also hailed the grant, which ranges from $50,000 to more than $2 million annually if improvement conditions are met.

“This gives us the opportunity to do those improvements with the financial assistance,” he said.

Magouyrk told the board that Ervin had begun implementing the required staff growth to increase teacher engagement with students at Lithia Springs.

“When I talked to staff, they were on board,” she said. “The most important thing is we look at this as a new challenge that we couldn’t do without this.”

After the meeting, Pritz deflected the federal government’s lengthy guidelines to qualify and retain the grant.

“Any time you have federal money, there’s strings attached, and that’s clearly understood,” he said. “But, if it can help our students, that’s the right thing we can do–even if it’s more work for us.”  

One of those government strings can be found in the grant’s 86-page "guidance” packet issued by the U.S. Department of Education in February. According to item I-10b, a state can decrease the grant’s funding over the three years to ensure the program’s sustainability after federal support ends. The government can also pull all funding from a school if that school doesn’t meet its established goals, according to item I-19.

Although pulling together the grant application process in less than a month won’t be easy, Magouyrk said she and the rest of her staff will be up to the challenge.

“Our students come first, and we already have a timeline in place so we meet the deadline by April 15,” she said after the meeting. “I have no fear as we work on the school improvement grant because we’re meeting with all these teacher and student groups, and together the winners will be our students.”

Also at the meeting, the board recognized , Burnett, and North Douglas elementary schools for earning Title I Distinguished School recognition. Each of the schools has achieved the status for at least four years.

The board also unanimously approved a three-year, interest-free $100,000 loan to the new Manchester High, which opens in August, for start-up band and athletic uniforms, as well as equipment. Principal Constance Craft plans to pay the loan back with payments of $35,000 the first two years and $30,000 the last year.