me arts ed

Funds available for Development of Ideas!

Here is an update on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), federal  funds under Title IID. These additional funds available to Maine school districts total $3,209, 375.  All School Administrative Units (SAU’s) that have a Title I program are eligible for some part of the grant.

The application for school districts is the same one used for NCLB and since the arts are part of NCLB, districts could choose to use their funds for the arts if they fit within the guidelines.

The funds are actually divided into two pots, each for $152, 484. One is based on a formula and one is a competitive grant. The final allocations based on the formula for each SAU is listed on the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) website that you can access by clicking here. These funds can be used for technology based professional development for teachers of all content areas, increasing accessibility to technology, and many other ways. At the MDOE page you will find a document called IID Regular & Stimulus Formula Grant Amounts that will give you a listing of the amounts each SAU is receiving.

At the MDOE page you will find a link called IID NCLAB Title IID ARRA Competivtive Grant Information Session – Webinar that is a recorded session from June 10th that you can listen to for a better understanding of each grant.

The Competitive funds are for the Development of Open Educational Resources (OER) in all Maine Learning Results content areas. OER are curriculum and resources on the internet that have been developed by university and curriculum groups that anyone has access to usually at no cost.

The IID Competitive Grant is for educators to develop OER’s. The resources will be created by teams of Maine educators for each of the content areas from the Maine Learning Results including a plan for professional development.

Nine grants will be given to eligible SAU’s (listed on the NCLBA website on MDOE) for $50,000 each. The nine SAU’s will serve as fiscal agents. At the end of phase three the hope is that resources will be available to educators for all 8 content areas. Be sure and listen to the webinar for more information.

A Request for Proposals (RFP’s) will be going out in the near future.