Many of us are now in the process of determining if our schools are comparable. In Mississippi, we use a comparability workbook provided by MDE to complete the process. Even though MDE hosted a helpful technical assistance, questions often arise once one starts on the project. Due to Covid, this is another year for which
Last year at this time, I wrote a blog on Parent and Family Engagement during the COVID pandemic. At the time, I thought that I was only having to address that topic for that unique time frame. Well, unfortunately, I was wrong. Here we are a year later, and the topic is still relevant and
The ARP ESSER III grant has been released. This grant has a few more requirements than prior grants. One requirement being the planning process. The ARP grant requires engaging in meaningful consultation with stakeholders and soliciting public input and considering this input in the development of the plan. Yes, this has been required for the
In Mississippi, our FY22 plan has been released in MCAPS. The plan format has changed substantially; however, the prompts are similar to what have been used in the past. Rather than a number of dimensions with required data and prompts, there are sections to address each of the Title programs a district receives – Title
Mississippi just released a new Accounting Manual that was revised 5/2021 and is is effective July 1, 2021. The new accounting manual is more specific about how expenditures should be budgeted to accurately reflect the purpose of the expenditure. The new accounting manual will need to be used as we plan for FY22 allocations and
A number of districts in Mississippi have been through and are currently going through monitoring on the implementation of federal grants for school year 2019-2020. These monitoring visits are currently being held as virtual monitoring visits with districts having to upload required evidence. As I reflect on the monitoring instrument and the required evidence
For all those dealing with federal dollars for K-12 schools, are you ready for more money? There’s more money on the way. So far, we here in Mississippi are spending funds from the (1) CARES Act (ESSER I) passed in March 2020 and are currently (2) completing applications for the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental
This is the time of year Federal Program Directors are beginning the planning process for FY22. In my last post, I talked about conducting surveys of all stakeholders to not only garner input for planning but to evaluate the prior year’s plan implementation. Once you have obtained the feedback from the surveys, the planning process
It’s time for LEAs to start planning for use of federal funds for the FY22 school year. This is a time to look ahead and project how we will spend our federal dollars based on the LEA’s needs. It’s a time of gathering data to enable an efficient review of the current year and prior