New policy affects some school funds

More than 65 percent of the students at Sedgefield Middle School fall into the low-income category, but the school won't receive federal funds to help that population this year.

Eight elementary schools in the district with a smaller percentage of low-income students than Sedgefield — including the suburban Devon Forest, Marrington and Sangaree elementary schools — will be eligible for the federal Title I funds.

The disparity is a result of a new strategy approved by the school board and spearheaded by Mike Turner, Berkeley's assistant superintendent for learning services.

Turner supports redirecting the district's federal funds to pay for class size reductions in 5-year-old kindergarten classes and to boost literacy in the early grades. By targeting the early elementary school grades, district officials hope to improve students' reading and math skills before they reach middle school.

Berkeley's poorest schools, where more than 75 percent of students are categorized as low- income, still will receive Title I funds this year under Turner's plan. But Sedgefield, Berkeley, College Park and Macedonia — four middle schools where less than 75 percent but more than 50 percent of enrolled students are low income — are no longer in line for the federal funds.

Students zoned to attend those four schools also are no longer eligible to switch to higher- performing schools under the No Child Left Behind law's choice transfer policy, as only schools that accept federal Title I money are required to offer the transfers. Of the 629 Berkeley students who used choice transfers to switch schools last year, 35 percent transferred away from those four middle schools.

Sheldon Etheridge, the district's director of federal programs, said concerns about too many transfers played no role in the changes. "The district has the flexibility to prioritize how it wants to spend the federal money under the law, and we are choosing to focus on our elementary schools," he said.

Etheridge said middle schools leaders aren't upset by the decision because the schools' overall funding has not been radically altered. For the next two years, the plan calls for the four middle schools to keep 75 percent of the funds that they would have received from the federal level — but the district is now using its own special funding sources to pay the costs.

Sedgefield, for example, received $193,600 in federal funds last year and stands to lose only $45,900 from that total.

Etheridge said middle school principals are excited that they'll have more freedom to decide how to use the money flowing into their schools, as the federal funds came with restrictions.

Reach Mindy B. Hagen at 937-5433 or mhagen@postandcourier.com.