[Missouri-l] Schools to Tap Stimulus

[peter altschul]

  Schools to tap stimulus
  Laffey plans to ask for a bit more staff.


By Jonathon Braden
Sunday, August 9, 2009
  Columbia Public Schools could decide how to spend more stimulus 
money tomorrow
night.  The school district expects to receive $4 million in 
federal stimulus
funds for special education and $2 million for Title I programs.
  Mary Laffey, assistant superintendent for human resources, will 
present a plan
in which the district could spend 4 percent of its special 
education dollars,
with some money spent on annual expenses that would need to be 
evaluated during
the district's budget cycle.
  "You worry about making personnel decisions that will have 
ongoing costs to the
district; in particular, to set people up in scenarios that they 
would lose a
job," Laffey said.  "Anything that is going to have an ongoing 
cost is going to
be something that we have to deal with in budget priorities the 
following year."
  In a presentation to the school board, Laffey said she plans to 
advocate
spending $170,599 of stimulus funds for personnel in five areas: 
psychological
interns, a school resource officer at Bearfield School, 
additional staff for the
district's visually impaired students, a Braille transcriptionist 
and two
special-education permanent substitutes.
  The school district every year hires psychological interns who 
test students to
see whether they need special services.  The interns make about 
$25,000,
including benefits.  Laffey said the interns serve psychological 
examiners in a
manner similar to student teachers who work under a classroom 
teacher, though
student teachers are not paid.
  "If we didn't have the psych interns, we'd have to hire more 
psychological
examiners," she said.
  The school district had been receiving a $37,500 grant from the 
Missouri
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to help pay for 
the interns.
  But DESE no longer offers the grant, Laffey said, meaning the 
district will have
to up its portion.
  Laffey also plans to ask the school board for $19,947 to pay 
for the SRO at
Bearfield School -- a continuing cost.  The Boone County 
Sheriff's Department and
the school district recently agreed to share the cost of the 
Bearfield SRO.
  Two of Laffey's recommendations would aid the school district's 
30 visually
impaired students.  The district has the equivalent of 1.4 
full-time employees
working with visually impaired students.  Laffey intends to ask 
for an additional
six-tenths of a full-time employee, she said, because the time 
needed for
working with the visually impaired has increased 33 percent, in 
part because
four totally blind students attend the school district.
  Laffey plans to recommend that the school district hire a 
Braille
transcriptionist, costing $30,000, to help the districtbs four 
blind students.
  Laffey also plans to advocate that the district hire two 
special-education
permanent substitutes who would be told the positions were for 
one year only.
  The recommendations are all the board has listed for taking 
action on during the
board meeting.
  Then the board plans to adjourn into executive session to 
discuss purchasing a
former day care at Bethel Street and Southampton Street in south 
Columbia.
  At a long-range facilities planning committee meeting on 
Wednesday, panel
members recommended the school board consider buying the 
15,441-square-foot
facility for possible use as an early childhood center or a 
special-education
facility.
  The building, which has housed several day care operators, has 
classrooms, a
playground, tennis courts and a pool.  It has been vacant since 
it closed as the
KinderCare Learning Center on Oct.  26, 2007.  Juan Carlos Pena 
and Francelia M.
  Serrano-Pena own the facility, according to county assessor 
records.
  The 4600 Bethel St.  address was last appraised for about $1.2 
million, according
to the county assessor's Web site.  County Building Services 
Manager Charles
Oestreic estimated Wednesday the school district could buy the 
property for
about $1.3 million and renovate it for $300,000 more.
  Reach Jonathon Braden at 573-815-1711 or e-mail 
jbraden at columbiatribune.com.
  This article was published on page A1 of the Sunday, August 9, 
2009 edition of
The Columbia Daily Tribune.