I hope everyone had a relaxing and restful Christmas break. It’s hard to believe we are now in 2023 and in the second half of the school year! Time flies when we are having fun, right? I had the great opportunity of attending the Brustein and Manasevit Fall Forum in early December, and I want
Many of us in Mississippi recently returned from the MDE-sponsored 2022 Equity for All…All for Equity conference. The conference had several sessions I found helpful. I want to share some information with you if you could not attend the conference or attended different sessions. Many presentations can be found in the MDE document library in
Last month I discussed comparability. I want to add a little to that conversation. As I stated previously, comparability is a federally mandated process that requires schools to attest that the Title schools are funded comparably to the non-Title schools, or if all schools are Title I, the higher-poverty schools are funded comparably to the
We have that word again – procedures. In federal programs, procedures come up all the time. This time it is in conjunction with comparability. Comparability is a federally mandated process that requires schools to attest that the Title schools are funded comparably to the non-Title schools, or if all schools are Title, the higher-poverty schools
So, how are you handling the closing of the Title FY20 and FY21 grants and the ESSER I grant? Are you like many who are rushing to get revisions done so the money can be in budget areas that can be easily spent? Remember that the funds must be obligated by September 30 and liquidated
It is hard to believe the new school year is here. Many school districts have already started!!! The summer has flown by! The beginning of the school year is hectic for principals and Federal Program Directors. I know I have to try and walk a delicate tightrope in getting out the information and reminders of
Last month I shared a few lessons learned from a monitoring visit. In that blog, I discussed procedures and documentation that could prevent a monitoring finding on indicator H-1. This month, I want to continue that discussion since there has been a change in the procurement thresholds. During this past legislative session, the Mississippi Senate
The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) is finishing the FY22 monitoring on FY21 documentation. After spending time with districts going through monitoring and working with them as they receive their reports, I would like to share some feedback that would better help the rest of us as we prepare for future monitoring visits from MDE.
As we move into the FY23 school year planning season, we focus on the teams that help us plan for the schoolwide plan and the Parent and Family Engagement Plan. One thing we need to remember is that we need two separate teams at the school level since the agendas for the meetings are different.
