CALUMET CITY | District 215 will lose about $100,000 of some $550,000 in federal, state and private grants it receives each year, officials said this week.
Assistant Superintendent Tim Kilrea outlined the grants Tuesday for the Board of Education of Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215.
Among the grants are about $237,000 in categorical federal grants such as Title I and Title II funds, Superintendent Robert Wilhite said.
Others include $127,955 for the Jobs for Illinois Graduates program and $81,470 for the Truancy Alternative Option Education Program, said Patti Seibel, secretary for curriculum, instruction, grants and assessments.
Late last year Congress eliminated an earmark award of $99,200 that District 215 received each of the last two years to fund another truancy program, Wilhite said.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., secured the earmark for District 215 but was unable to protect it from Republicans, who cut such grants from the federal budget last year, said Rick Bryant, a spokesman for Jackson.
"Every earmark in the budget for 2007 was stripped out right before the end of the year," Bryant said. "(District 215 officials) are not alone. Anybody scheduled to get money through an earmark is not going to get it this year."
The earmark was used to fund a program targeting 16 chronically truant students each from Thornton Fractional North and South high schools, Wilhite said.
"Congress is no longer going to do those," he said. "It appears it will dry up, so we will probably lose that program. It's a very good program, unfortunately."
TF North receives all of District 215's Title I money, because TF South does not qualify for the funds, Wilhite said. That grant is used for after-school tutoring programs and reading and math initiatives, he said.
Because TF South does not get any Title I money, District 215 uses its Title II funds for after-school programs at the Lansing school, Wilhite said.
"We try to use it to give similar services to North and South, since (South is) not eligible for Title I services," he said.
The State Street Global foundation of Chicago recently increased its annual grant to TF North from $5,000 to $7,000 a year.
