This article by Yesenia Robles and Sam Park was originally posted on Chalkbeat on February 14, 2020. Shared in two parts.
As poverty grows along Denver’s borders, some suburban schools are finding they have fewer resources to serve a changing crop of students.
School districts are seeing areas of concentrated poverty with more schools needing extra resources to address the challenges students face. At the same time, districts are receiving fewer federal dollars meant to help schools provide those services to students from low-income families. Districts can either spread out funds more widely, or narrow the focus to fewer schools and leave some students behind.
Large districts like Aurora, Jeffco, and Cherry Creek are among those grappling with how to serve more schools with higher percentages of students living in poverty.
“It’s a tough place to be in,” said Linda Reyes-Quinonez, Title I director for Jeffco Public Schools, who oversees about $8.7 million in these federal dollars for Colorado’s second-largest district. “Definitely the demographics in Jeffco have changed over the years.”
Through the Title I program, the federal government gives school districts money to help address the effects of poverty. Schools often pay for family liaisons, social workers, paraprofessionals, more teachers, or coaches for teachers, all to help address achievement gaps, mobility, and higher mental health needs that often come with a higher concentration of poverty in a community.
But the flow of Title I money isn’t matching up with district needs, partly because the federal government calculates poverty based on census counts of all children living in an area, not on how many students actually show up at schools. And children can enroll in private schools or cross boundary lines for school. Many schools are seeing declining enrollment as families move out, but in some cases, the students who remain are more likely to come from low-income families. Also, Congress in some years has cut funding for Title I.
The Denver school district has escaped the Title I funding squeeze because fewer of its schools qualify for Title I money. But many surrounding school districts face hard choices. While the federal government calculates how much money each district gets, it’s up to each district to set a bar for which schools will receive the money — often based on subsidized lunch counts. In Aurora, the district is planning to reduce the number of schools that qualify for Title I money next fall, to focus on fewer schools.
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Currently, the district directs Title I funds to schools with at least 70% of students who qualify for free lunch. This year, 31 schools in Aurora are receiving some Title I money. Nine additional schools would have met that 70% mark for next year, but instead the district plans to bump up the threshold to 75%. That would still add two schools to the list.
Local board members reluctantly suggested they would support such a move, but lamented the difficult choice.
Aurora board member Debbie Gerkin called it a terrible decision to have to make.
“This impacts instruction for kids,” Gerkin said. “When you’re losing a teacher, that’s a tremendous loss. I’m having trouble honestly wrapping my head around what would be the best course of action for students.”
In Aurora, the demographic changes are more drastic than elsewhere in the metro area. Districtwide, student enrollment was essentially flat from last year, but the district lost 4,263 students who aren’t eligible for subsidized lunch at the same time that it gained 4,459 students who do qualify. In 2014, approximately one-third of Aurora students were in schools that had concentrations of 70% or more students who qualify for free lunch. Now, almost one-half of district students attend schools with such high need.
One of the schools that would have qualified for extra funds next year if the threshold didn’t change is Aurora Central High School, one of the district’s lowest-performing schools. This year, the school enrolled just 27 more students than last, but there were significant changes in the approximately 2,000-student population. The number of students who qualify for free lunch went up by almost 300. The number of students not eligible for subsidized lunch was cut nearly in half from 667 to 390.
Aurora district officials in response are changing how they spend their local budget. For next fall, the district is proposing to give more per-student money to all schools, and to increase the extra dollars it gives for “at-risk students.”
The district would increase the school allocation for each student who qualifies for subsidized lunch from $821 to $1,261, and would start including students who qualify for reduced-price lunch.
“We’re significantly prioritizing in a way that we can control allocating at least $400 million to schools in a different way to better prioritize at-risk kids,” said Brett Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer.
He said the district has more control over local funds. Using them will offset some of the loss of federal Title I dollars, and school principals will not notice much difference, district officials said. They did not allow any of the affected principals to speak with Chalkbeat.
In Jeffco, the district provides a full-time family engagement liaison to each Title I school. Next year each of those positions will be cut back to four days per week, unless schools choose to use money from other parts of their budget to maintain the full-time help.
In the Jeffco district the change has been gradual. In 10 years, the number of schools with a high concentration of poverty has grown from 22 to 32. Next year, the district will add one more school to its list of those receiving Title I funds.
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Reyes said she is bracing for more cuts in the near future. She said the district may also have to consider focusing on fewer schools…
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.