Community In Schools program funding discussed at Van Buren County School Board meeting

Van Buren County School Board’s June meeting addressed ongoing concerns about future funding for the Communities In Schools (CIS) Program.

The nationwide initiative works directly with students to provide essential resources and support to promote academic success. However, the local program continues to face challenges in covering its costs. Board Member Barry Austin expressed support for the program but pointed out that the school system already provides similar services.

“My only problem with that is everything you pretty much named, we pay somebody to do,” Austin said. “We have an attendance person, we got Mrs. Kelly, we got Mrs. Jill for clothes. Everything you said, we are paying people to do.”

Austin’s concern is that the school system might end up bearing the full operating costs of the CIS Program, while Director of Schools Katina Simmons acknowledged the program’s positive impact, saying that it has helped improve student attendance since its inception five years ago. Eventually, the board made the decision to approve a $2,500 contribution to support the program.

The discussion about the CIS Program prompted a broader conversation about grant funding across the entire school system. Austin mentioned that several positions initially funded through grants are now being paid for entirely by the school system. With declining enrollment and reduced funding, he warned that some grant-funded positions may have to be eliminated.

“Nobody wants to do it,” Austin said. “It’s terrible, but it’s a fact of life when you take a job that’s on a grant, when the grant goes, you gotta go, because we can’t just keep that up.”

When asked about the fate of employees who have reached tenure if their positions are grant-funded, chairman Tim Hodges explained that state law requires the school system to find alternative employment within the district for tenured employees affected by position changes.

“The law actually states that if they take a position and are still holding their tenure and the position changes, you have to find them another job,” Hodges explained adding that the new position does not have to be in the same department or doing the same thing as they were originally hired for. “But it has to be in the system.”

The board was told that it is estimated that the school system currently has eight grant-funded positions, and if those grants disappear, it could result in a cost of approximately $400,000 to the district.