July 17, 2007 — The Department of Education defended a General Fund budget appropriation of $183 million during a long afternoon and evening preliminary budget hearing Monday in Frederiksted.
Education is also requesting $5 million from the governor’s executive budget. Its total budget, including some $38 million in federal grants funding, comes to $228.5 million. Education is by far the largest single component in the General Fund budget.
The total budget proposal is $9 million higher than last year and $4 million higher than the budget recommended by Gov. John P. deJongh Jr. The $4 million increase over the governor’s recommendation is from a recent supplemental request, needed for pay increases mandated by the Legislature. It increased the minimum government salary to $20,000 a year.
Acting Commissioner of Education Donna Frett-Gregory outlined Education’s major goals and plans for the year. The department is very large and varied, and she discussed many areas of focus. One was the issue of funds the Legislature lent Education to make up for federal grant money held back until tighter financial controls could be put into place.
“I guess the burning question in your minds is, ‘What of the $27 million loaned to the Department of Education by the government of the Virgin Islands?’” Frett-Gregory said. “‘Where are we … with drawing these funds from the U.S. Department of Education?’ On June 30 we submitted $18 million in documents to the federal government, and we are in the process of gathering additional data to draw down additional funds.” With the aid of a third-party fiduciary, hired last fall at the insistence of the federal government, Education must now spend tens of millions in past federal grant money, rapidly and correctly, or risk losing the funds. Frett-Gregory said Education and the third-party fiduciary were moving rapidly, but it would probably not be possible to spend all of the grant money in the time available.
The schools have been strained trying to accommodate an influx in recent years of new arrivals who do not speak English and do not assimilate easily into the system, Frett-Gregory said. To address it, she plans to set up a center for newcomers, to help prepare new students for public school and to lessen the ongoing disruption to the schools.
The system is equipped to handle Spanish-speaking students who have been in school in their native country, but many of the new arrivals now have more complex situations, said St. Thomas Insular Superintendent Lisa Hassell-Forde. The Department hopes to provide help in their transition, she said.
“It is not intended to be a school,” Hassell-Forde said. “It is not for every student coming in who speaks a different language, but those who are having trouble. We have experienced a large influx of immigrants who don’t read or write in their native language. We are getting students 12 and 13 years old who have never, ever been in a school setting in their native countries.”
About 60 or 70 children right now might benefit from the center, she said. Frett-Gregory said the center would try some new approaches.
“It is an experiment,” she said. “No one wants to speak about it, but these children are being pushed to the side and end up forming gangs. Fights break out. And it’s not necessary. Hopefully within three or four months we can move them into the schools. We don’t anticipate everything going smoothly, and it may not work. But we must try something.”
She emphasized the difference from an alternative school, because the children did not necessarily have any behavioral problems. They were just out of their element and unprepared, she said.
Another big change in the works is implementing the governor’s promise to shift more control to the districts. Each insular superintendent will overseeing the district’s budget. This means the two superintendents will each suddenly have oversight of $60 to $70 million.
“Are any processes set up to control the money yet?” Sen. Louis Hill asked.
“We have experience spending money,” said St. Croix Superintendent Jewel Ross Brathwaite. “Not in the millions, but large sums. The ERP (enterprise resource planning) system we have will help keep close track of the funds, and it literally will bump out a transaction if it isn’t allowable.” ERP software maintains a comprehensive, interactive database of all of a large organization’s financial and other information.
“I am concerned about the wisdom of giving districts that much more control,” Hill said. “Also, are you having to duplicate functions, adding accountants to the insular level?”
“We already have to have accountants allocated to every school,” Frett-Gregory said. “I would say it is more a matter of restructuring and changing responsibilities.”
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