Schools to receive funds for evacuees

Published 10:25 pm Thursday, December 29, 2005

Cullman city and county school systems could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from federal grants to reimburse schools that educated evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Nancy Horton said the system’s last count, taken in November, showed more than 40 evacuee students remain in county schools. City Schools Superintendent Jan Harris said about 20 evacuee students were still in city schools, down from a high of 27.

Congress approved $1.6 billion in funding for affected schools before the holiday recess. Alabama stands to get about $30 million of that. The state Department of Education said schools could receive up to $6,000 per evacuee, or $7,500 for evacuee students in special education.

Both superintendents said the school systems incurred some extra costs related to educating the unexpected students.

“There is a cost,” Harris said. “We’ve definitely provided for these students with tutoring and textbooks. It’d be nice to get some reimbursement.”

“We do have some added expenses due to the increased populations,” Horton said. “A couple of schools have looked at adding aides because (the incoming students) made some classes a little too large.”

In addition to increased class sizes, the county system also had to provide transportation for some students, unlike the city system, which does not run regular bus routes. Administrators also had to spend time admitting and tracking the evacuee students, another expense the grants will help offset.

Horton noted that many of the new students received supplies from community donations, which saved the school systems money.

“We had a wonderful outpouring from the community,” Horton said.