Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – Nettleton Public Schools (NPS) is seeking public comment as it prepares to apply for waivers that give the district more control in how it uses federal dollars.

The district will soon be applying to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to waive federal requirements under the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) granted the state of Arkansas the flexibilities in early July. Arkansas is the 21st state to receive ed-flex authority, according to the ED.

This will be the first time NPS has applied for these waivers. The district is applying for the following:

  • Title IV, Part A: Required Spending Categories waiver
  • Title I, Part A: 15% Carryover Limitation waiver
  • Time-and-Effort Certification forms waiver

“What it basically does for the district is give us a little more control on how we spend our federal dollars,” said Grace Petersen, assistant superintendent of finance and federal programs at NPS.

| ADD US ON GOOGLE NEWS: Click here to see more local news from Jonesboro Right Now

A district receiving more than $30,000 in Title IV, Part A funding is required to allocate a certain percentage of that money to specific categories. That breaks down to allocating at least 20% of that funding on a well-rounded education, at least 20% on safe and healthy students, and an additional amount on technology.

“The waiver would allow us to spend that fund however we wanted to spend it. So, the goal is that you spend on where the students have the most need,” Petersen said.

For NPS, Petersen said the funds could be used for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, robotics, art or other curricula the district has not “possibly been able to do.” She added that funds could also be used for additional and improved school safety measures.

“It’s hard to know until the waiver’s approved, and then we would do a needs assessment and determine how we would spend the funds,” she said.

The Title I, Part A waiver allows the district to carry over more federal funding from one year to the next. Title I, Part A provides additional funding for schools serving students from low-income families. Normally, a district can carry no more than 15% of that money over to the next year, but the waiver allows the district to carry any amount over.

The time and effort certification waiver would apply to NPS staff paid entirely by federal funds. These staff are required to sign paperwork twice a year confirming how their time was spent, but under the waiver, that requirement would be waived.

Petersen said the district has some staff who meet this qualification, but that staff partially paid by federal funding would still need to fill out paperwork. The district’s public notice of the intent to apply for the waivers said this would allow staff to “spend less time on federal paperwork and more time supporting students and classrooms.”

A public comment period for the intent to apply for the waivers opened Sept. 11, and will continue through Sept. 23. Comments can be submitted via the following methods:

All comments will be submitted to the ADE, along with the application. The application must be submitted by Oct. 1. More information about the intent to apply can be found here.

If the ADE approves the waivers, of which Petersen said the district would hopefully know within the month of October, NPS leadership will begin making plans as to how to allocate the funding.

“[It’s] decreasing the amount of paperwork that you have in federal programs,” Petersen said. “The other thing is just being able to use our funding where we see the need in our district. That’s the main benefit from the waiver is just, how we spend our federal dollars. It’s all spent in our buildings, and so we just want to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of our students.”

| DAILY BRIEF: Sign up for the Jonesboro Right Now Daily Brief Newsletter