Since the money came after the school year started — too late to hire new teachers — the district went in another direction. Farmington officials decided to leave the money untouched. Unsure about whether the state will come through with what it owes the district, school officials decided to wait and watch the budget process take shape in Springfield over the next few weeks.
If the state falls even further behind on payments to schools, the federal money from the Education Jobs Fund will be used as a small safety net, said Mark Doan, Farmington schools superintendent. “If the state comes and says we don’t have the funds, at that point, I’d turn around and say we’ll use those Education Jobs funds,” Mr. Doan said.
After the Education Jobs Fund was announced in August, the federal government and Gov. Pat Quinn encouraged districts to quickly spend their portion of the $415 million. But, technically, districts do not have to use the money until Sept. 30, 2012.
By Dec. 1, only about 20 percent of school districts had spent all their federal jobs money, according to Illinois State Board of Education reports. In addition, as of Dec. 10, Illinois schools still had $300 million remaining of the $415 million assigned to them.
Many districts said they planned to use the money this fiscal year, but had not yet submitted the paperwork. Others said they might stretch the money into the next fiscal year.
The Education Jobs Fund program highlights just how difficult the fiscal situation is for Illinois schools. When the federal government sent Illinois the money to save teachers’ jobs in September, the tough choices had already been made and staffing plans had been put in place. But as the state did not pay school districts the money it owed them, some schools started to look at the federal money as a small lifeline.
In southwestern Illinois, Sparta District 140 used its $526,000 to cover the September and October payroll for teachers, Superintendent Larry Beattie said.
“We were running out of money,” Mr. Beattie said. “We’re all getting short on cash because of what happened last year” with the state falling significantly behind on reimbursing school districts.
Using the federal money for payroll expenses allowed the district to avoid other cuts, he said.
Earlier this month, Christopher Koch, the state schools superintendent, sent local school officials some good news: Districts would not have to sue the State of Illinois to get the money owed to individual districts for the 2010 fiscal year, which ended six months ago. In early December, Illinois used proceeds from the sale of tobacco revenue bonds to pay off an outstanding $368 million it owed to the schools.
Schools are now waiting for at least $706 million in late payments for the current fiscal year. When the state is late on payments, districts must sometimes borrow to pay their bills, adding to their own financial hardships. Next year may be difficult because no large federal spending packages are on the horizon, and Illinois is constrained by a projected budget deficit of $13 billion, according to the governor’s office.
Chicago Public Schools, which has $104 million of the state’s total allotment of Education Jobs Fund money, is using its money to pay teachers to keep high school classes the same size, restore bilingual education positions and create special-education jobs, said Frank Shuftan, a district spokesman.
In south-suburban Blue Island, the timing worked out better than it did for many other districts. There, Cook County District 130 will use its $877,000 in Education Jobs Fund dollars this fiscal year to pay the salaries for 10 teachers, as well as the costs for three new counselors for its middle schools, said Allan McDonald, the district administrator for business services.
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