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The February 11 meeting of the Lincoln-Sudbury (L-S) Regional School Committee included a comprehensive review of Federal funding for the district. Kirsteen Patterson, the district’s director of finance and operations, delivered a presentation complete with a detailed timeline of what has been happening in Washington, D.C., and the implications for the school district.
The “funding freeze” memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget has not, according to Patterson, impacted L-S. A memo from Patterson was shared in the meeting agenda, and it states:
Schools receive federal funding for specific programs that are funneled through the states and administered through our MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The programs we receive federal funding for are reimbursement based programs that include: (1) National School Lunch Program (2) School-Based Medicaid Program (3) Grants – formula based not discretionary. All reimbursements go through DESE and are distributed to the districts for local reporting and accountability.
The school lunch program and school-based Medicaid reimbursements are considered assistance directly received for human services and are excluded from the action of funding freeze.
The federal grants we receive fall under two categories: ESSA – Title I, Title IIA, Title IV and Special Education – IDEA. In total, LS receives $64,297 for all three ESSA grants and $383,762 for IDEA. These programs are all formula based allocations and not considered cuts in the OMB Memorandum identifying a funding freeze.
The committee asked a variety of questions to clarify details and contingencies. Patterson reiterated that there’s no local impact yet, but that district leadership is continuing to monitor what’s happening at the Federal level. There was significant discussion about universal free school meals. That program is funded by a combination of State and Federal funding – and the Federal funding is technically a reimbursement-based program according to Patterson.
While there are no immediate risks to free school meals at L-S, House Republicans have recently discussed $12 billion in cuts to Federal funding for the program over 10 years.
According to K-12 Dive, “The House Ways and Means Committee is suggesting cutting $12 billion in school meal programs over 10 years by adjusting school qualification for the Community Eligibility Provision and requiring income verification for national K-12 breakfast and lunch programs, according to a document on the committee’s budget reconciliation options.”
While there’s no immediate impact, the potential impact was of concern for the full committee. Chair Ravi Simon noted that President Donald Trump’s executive orders pertaining to transgender students pose a direct risk to states like Massachusetts, and the impact of any withheld Federal funding could trickle down to L-S eventually.
Patterson was asked by member Kevin Matthews “I’m just wondering if Massachusetts has overextended itself by assuming the obligation of paying every kid no matter what their financial need is. Is that going to jeopardize, if money disappears, our ability to feed the kids who absolutely need it?” (1:13:00)
Patterson responded “I don’t believe that would be impacted.”
