Race To The Top: Escambia Schools Awarded $8.37 Million

January 21, 2011

The Escambia County School District was notified Thursday that it will receive $8,373,647 in Race to Top funds.

Escambia County was one of five districts to be awarded Thursday, bringing  the total number of districts receiving full approval of their Race to the Top grant to 35, with the combined amount of funding awarded now at more than $142 million.

In August 2010, Florida won $700 million in funding through the federal Race to the Top competition. Half of the funds will be distributed to approved school districts to carry out locally developed education reform plans.

The other half of the funding is being used by the state to develop a broad array of programs and strategies that will directly aid all school districts in areas that include improving their lowest performing schools; recognizing and rewarding their highly effective teachers; and increasing the academic achievement of all students.

Comments

5 Responses to “Race To The Top: Escambia Schools Awarded $8.37 Million”

  1. Tax Payer on January 21st, 2011 9:50 pm

    Even though raises would be good for people, this a one time payment and not recurring income. Giving pay raises with this would set the school district up for failure later when the money is gone and they cant sustain the raises given.

    The money should be used to improve the infrastructure of the school district like some of the schools that need additions to make room for students because of increased student populations in various locations. This would allow the district to stop putting so much money into modular buildings and get rid of some of those that were brought over when the Mayflower landed. Another idea…how about replacing the aged Ernest Ward Middle school with a facility with a new middle school. The best use for the money to give the best bang for the buck is the smart decision.

  2. interested reader on January 21st, 2011 12:00 pm

    I will be very interested to see how the school board handles this 8 million dollar windfall. There are so many worthy people and projects that I can only hope the board distributes it accordingly.

  3. Carolyn on January 21st, 2011 9:55 am

    Oh yes, the bus aids deserve a raise also.I have been in both positions and the bus aides work as hard as the bus driver. They are the ones that get beat up on most of the time.

  4. Carolyn on January 21st, 2011 9:52 am

    Maybe out of some of this money the SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS and teachers can get a decent raise.

  5. Fairlane63 on January 21st, 2011 8:54 am

    Greeeeeeeeeat, more Federal Government involvement in public education. That’s worked so well up to this point…