All five Athens County school districts declined to apply for part of Ohio's $400 million Race to the Top fund - but six surrounding counties received more than $4 million thanks to the program.
Ohio was one of 12 states chosen to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top program, which is funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The $400 million will be distributed to Ohio schools during the next four years.
The program intends to provide education innovation and reform, achieve significant improvement in student outcomes and improve high school graduation rates.
Now that the money has been awarded to the state, 487 Ohio school districts, charter schools and vocational schools will begin receiving varying amounts of funding through the program - but Athens County schools will not be among them.
In order for a district to apply for Race to the Top funds, each district's school board, teachers' association and superintendent must agree to submit the application, said Athens City School District Superintendent Carl Martin.
The superintendents of Alexander Local, Athens City and Federal Hocking Local school districts all said each district's teachers' association did not approve of applying.
Nelsonville-York City and Trimble Local school districts could not be reached for comment.
In the Athens City district, the teachers' association, superintendent and school board all agreed not to apply for the funding, Martin said.
"(Race to the Top) is too many strings for too little money," Martin said. "A lot of bureaucracy for no direct services."
Martin said the funds granted from the program could not be used for direct services, such as teachers' salaries and other expenses.
"It is driven by the federal government and their guidelines," Martin said. "It would have been nice to get funds to pay for teachers."
Race to the Top funds have specific rules for how Ohio school districts can use the awarded money, said Joan Nichols, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education.
"Funds can't be used to fill a budget gap," Nichols said. "We are being asked to make the most of these resources."
In the Federal Hocking Local School District, Superintendent James Patsey and the school board were in favor of applying for funds, but the president of the teachers' union did not sign off on the application, Patsey said.
The teachers' unions for each of the five school districts could not be reached for comment.
School districts in each of Athens County's neighboring six counties received funds ranging from $100,000 to more than $500,000.
Five school districts in Washington County applied for funding through the program because the local teachers' union allowed the districts to apply, said Harry Fleming, superintendent of Belpre City School District in Washington County.
"(The teachers) had a lot of reservations but were willing to explore it," Fleming said. "Any wage changes would have had to been negotiated anyway."
Program funding was awarded to states in two phases. Two states were chosen during the first phase, and those that did not receive the funding originally were able to reapply during the second phase, when nine states and the District of Columbia were chosen.
In the second phase of applications, Ohio was ranked No. 11, behind New Jersey until a one-paragraph mistake on a budget information page in the 1,299-page application was made, dropping New Jersey out of the top 10.
Statewide, only about half of the possible individual schools and school districts that could participate will receive funds, but Nichols said that the Race to the Top will eventually benefit everyone in the state.
"This project will help create world-class students and schools," Nichols said. "Students will be better prepared for college and careers. It is really an honor for the state."
rc348710@ohiou.edu
