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Lubbock ISD is using federal stimulus money to help improve your child's math skills and lower dropout rates, and this is just the beginning.
District administrators say they're carefully tracking how these tax dollars are being spent. The district received roughly $25 million in federal stimulus funds to spend over two years.
According to the rules that came along with this money districts don't report specific items to the feds unless they spend more than $25,000. In many cases that makes it tough for taxpayers to know exactly how their dollars are being used. But LISD is keeping tight records for full disclosure.
50 percent of the stimulus funds given to the district are already gone, with a large portion, about $1.5 million, going to retain staff.
"When you put personnel in a category it increases the amount you spend," says Denise Mattson, executive director for LISD School Support Services.
The money has gone to expand pre-K programs and fund reading coaches.
"I think we were pretty cautious before we started spending the money and we studied the guidance that we had and didn't just think it was a free pot of money," says Mattson.
Another $24,000 paid for 10th graders to take the PSAT, a critical step in helping students identify problem areas before the actual college entrance exam. Then, tally an additional $165,000 for after-school programs at three campuses.
The money even helped make a pilot program possible that provides some math students with new, wireless calculators to use in class.
District administrators say this all wouldn't have been possible without the stimulus money.
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