Schoolwide Planning Teams, Parent Engagement Teams, Leadership Teams, So Many Teams!
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. […]
Are Federal Program Procedure Manuals Really Necessary?
Are federal program procedure manuals essential? As much as I hate to say it, the answer is yes. The procedure manual for federal programs is addressed at conferences and during every monitoring visit. The next question is, what does the procedure manual include? The manual should consist of the procedures undertaken by the federal programs […]
Reallocations, Equitable Services, Needs Assessments, Schoolwide Plans…..Overwhelming?
It’s January, and if you are like so many other Federal Program Directors and me, I’m sure you are feeling overwhelmed. We have FY22 and ESSER II reallocations, equitable service diligent search, comprehensive needs assessment surveys, and now FY22 schoolwide plans to be completed within the next month or so. Overwhelming???? Yes!!! So how are […]
Maintenance of Equity
Welcome to Federal Programs where there is always something new! 😉 The MDE introduced maintenance of equity (MOEquity) to us this month. MOEquity is a provision brought to us by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP Act). The State departments and LEAs must show MOEquity as a condition of receiving ARP ESSER funds. […]
Supplement Not Supplant and Maintenance of Effort
I learned today that the supplement not supplant (SNS) provision no longer applies to Title I district-level budgeted expenditures. Federal program directors were initially told SNS applied to Title I schools, not district-level costs, since LEAs had to provide a methodology for funding schools. Maybe I missed it along the way, but I did not […]
Are Your Schools Comparable?
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 […]
Parent and Family Engagement FY22 – Still COVID
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 […]
ARP ESSER III GRANT
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 […]
FY22 Plan Development
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 […]
Budgeting with Function and Object Codes
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 […]
Forward-Think Federal Programs Monitoring
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 […]
More COVID Relief on the Way
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 […]