PHOTO BY LISA CARNLEY Lampasas ISD Business Manager Shane Jones, far left, conducted the latest tour of the new high school facility on Monday. A busload of residents visited classrooms, labs and specialty rooms to get an update on progress. Move-in is scheduled to begin the middle of the month. See related photos, page 6B. Lampasas Independent School District soon will benefit from an infusion of dollars from President Barack Obama's American Recovery and Investment Act's $100 billion education investment at the national level. The announcement came at Monday night's meeting of the Board of Trustees.

The LISD is earmarked to receive two separate grants, and they must be used for Title I programs and special education services, said Nelda Fortune Crawford, LISD assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and Kelly Adams, interim special education director.

LISD is set to receive $415,959 in Title I funds. Of that, 85 percent must be spent by Sept. 30, 2010, and the remainder must be expended by Sept. 30, 2011.

Some funds for technology also will be available, but the amount is unknown, Mrs. Crawford said.

There are a number of options in which to spend the funds, including staff development, improving early learning programs, technology with instruction, an emphasis on reading and mathematics, higher standards to improve teaching and learning, and research-based programs and resources.

Special education is to receive $664,489, in two parts, with funds for students ages 3 to 21 who need those services, and for prekindergarten students, said Mrs. Adams.

Options for spending include assistive technology, staff training, targeting compliance issues, improving student performance, and transition services/employment for older students.

Applications for funds are available, and the LISD is in the process of completing it, said Mrs. Crawford. The district also is gathering needs assessments and targeting program needs for special education.

As with all funds given to school districts, there are strings attached, Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Adams said. Funds must be spent in two years' time, and school districts that use funding to hire additional staff must realize that after the two-year period, a district must either fund the positions by itself or not renew contracts.

"There are so many hoops to jump through," said LISD Interim Superintendent Rex Daniels. "We basically have about $1 million to spend in two years, and we'd be crazy not to spend it all, or we'll lose it."

James Briggs, LISD board president, said he realizes the funds must be expended within two years, "but I'd like to spend it in such a way that it will have a lifetime impact on the district."

In other business, preliminary scores from Texas Assessment of Academic Skills tests in spring 2009 were disappointing to administrators and trustees alike.

With few exceptions, scores dropped in nearly all areas of testing across each grade level.

"We are not satisfied with what we see," said Mrs. Crawford. "We did not improve the way we anticipated, but we are working on it. We've got a lot of work to do next year.

"As soon as scores came back, I started working with campus principals to see what we can do to make them better," said the assistant superintendent.

"We are in a year of transition, and we have some distractions that we won't have next year. And the test is getting more difficult each year, and the standards are raised each year, so we have to raise our standards accordingly," Mrs. Crawford said.

The LISD is doing a grade-by-grade analysis to assess its strengths and weaknesses, and Mrs. Crawford said she is continuing to look at instructional strategies and other areas to help boost scores.

The biggest drops were in ninth-grade math and 10th-grade science, where the number of students passing fell by 11 percent over the 2008 testing results.

Also Monday, a resignation was accepted from Eric Sundheim, social studies teacher/coach at Lampasas High School.

New hires include Jimmy Cain and Derek Cain, teachers/coaches, LHS; Marcella Lockett and Lamonica Shipp, teachers, LHS; and Shannon Lindsey and Amanda Forsythe, teachers/coaches, Lampasas Middle School.