CRESTVIEW — When Northwood Arts and Science Academy was announced a winner of RESTORE Act funds to enhance the school’s science technology, engineering and math program, faculty, administrators and parents rejoiced.
“Our little school won about $36,000, which to us is a small fortune,” Principal Dr. Donna Goode said.
But the U.S. Department of the Treasury suddenly changed eligibility rules, said Goode and Patti English, the Northwood teacher who applied for the grant.
That leaves local grant winners, who followed Okaloosa County grants administration policy and procedures, wondering if they’ll ever see the money.
On July 28, area schools that thought they’d been awarded money from the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund learned that Treasury now requires new reports, including “best available science” compliancy certification, multi-year plans and scientific “narratives.”
And they must be filed by Aug. 8, two days before the new school year begins.
“Treasury has been mucking with the rules a little,” Okaloosa School District Community Affairs Director Henry Kelley said.
‘IT’S UNREAL’
“This is unreal what they’re asking,” Goode said. “They should’ve asked for this at the beginning. With school starting we cannot physically do this in time.
“We followed the rules and now the Treasury Department has changed the guidelines.”
And, English said, there’s another hitch.
“They want us to spend the money and then they’ll reimburse us,” she said. “Who has $36,262? No school has that kind of money. We’d have to plan three years in advance to budget it.”
While simultaneously setting up her classroom for her new batch of third-graders, English said she’s doing her best to gather the newly required documentation.
“I want to give it the good college try,” she said. “It’s going to be extremely difficult but we’re going to try. It’s a full-time job just to do all the paperwork.”
HOPE ON THE HORIZON
Northwood’s grant money, as well as that won by Baker School to establish a CHOICE construction program, may not be lost, said Jim Trifilio, Okaloosa County’s RESTORE Act coordinator.
“The good thing is that the money in the pot is the county’s money,” Trifilio said. “That’s not going away. There’s no timeline on it. If the school needs a year to finish the paperwork, the money will still be there.”
The Department of the Treasury’s role is merely to verify proposed projects meet requirements for RESTORE Act funding, he said.
“If it turns out to be an eligible use of RESTORE Act funds, the school will get the money,” Trifilio said.
Treasury’s job is not to choose projects, he said. That was done by the Board of County Commissioners, who approved 15 county-wide projects for forwarding to Treasury.
“The county commissioners decided when we had this $6 million pot, the idea was they would…set aside $4 million for larger projects, then they put $2 or 3 million aside for small projects under $90,000,” Kelley said. “We applied for a bunch of under-90’s for the district.”
‘REALLY COOL STUFF’
Northwood’s proposal is for school-wide science, technology, engineering and math — STEM — projects, ranging from science fairs for all grade levels to a hydroponics greenhouse.
“It was really some cool stuff,” Goode said.
The disheartening introduction of after-the-fact red tape left Goode and her teachers wondering if pursuit of RESTORE Act funds is worth the effort.
“They have basically changed the rules on us,” Goode said. “There is just a lot of bureaucratic red tape. It’s like they don’t want us to have the money.”
“This is just ridiculous,” English said. “They want us to drop out. That’s why they discourage us.
“It’s been a yearlong, arduous process. Why do federal grants have to be so cumbersome? This was supposed to be BP grant money. It was supposed to be handled locally.”
Northwood was the only Okaloosa County elementary school to make it through the application process.
‘IT’S PRETTY DISCOURAGING’
English said while federal officials demand more paperwork, the first grant money, if awarded, won’t come until 2017. That puts current students at risk, she said.
“How can they say they want kids to fall in love with STEM and want to make it a career and then make it take years?” she asked.
“I have fourth- and fifth-graders now who will never see the benefits of this grant as intended. They will go to middle school perhaps not as prepared as they should.
“It’s pretty discouraging that we’re not going to see a dime of it for two years, and that’s if we pass the new requirements.”
Many of Northwood’s students are already challenged, English said. As a Title 1 school, many of the children come from economically disadvantaged homes.
“We serve very high risk children,” she said. “We teach minorities. We teach challenged kids.”
ALTERNATIVES
“Sometimes it’s in the government’s best interest to make the process as bureaucratic and difficult as possible,” Laurel Hill resident Dennis Mitchell, an environmental professional with the Institute of Professional Environmental Practice, said.
Under some federal programs, there is the possibility that unspent grant money could revert into government coffers. But not so with RESTORE Act funds.
“That means it’ll stay in the county no matter what happens to it,” Mitchell said. “The feds have all their fingers in the rules, but they don’t have control of the money outright.”
While that may be some comfort, English said that now that she and Northwood’s science teachers have put their plans together, if they can’t get the RESTORE Act funds they were led to believe they’d receive, they might look into other sources.
“Maybe we’ll get a GoFundMe account,” she said, referring to a fundraising website. “Maybe some people in the community would donate the money and we won’t have to rely on the grant.”
At the end, what matters most, she said, are students who will fill desks in her room Aug. 10.
“We’re just simple teachers and we’re trying to do the best for our kids,” English said.
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APPROVED LOCAL PROJECTS
The Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners approved these North Okaloosa school and municipal projects to send to the Department of the Treasury for consideration of RESTORE Act funds:
●Northwood Arts and Science Academy*: science, technology, engineering and math projects
●Davidson Middle School: Scientific method initiative
●Davidson Middle School: Unmanned aerial vehicle program
●Crestview High School: Create biomedical program
●Baker School*: Start CHOICE construction program
●Crestview Kiwanis: McMahon Environmental Center’s renovation
●Okaloosa County Public Works: Okaloosa Lane bridge conversion, Crestview
Educational projects were also approved for Ruckel Middle School*, Choctawhatchee High School*, Niceville High School, the Northwest Florida State College Choctawhatchee Basin Foundation, and the CHOICE High School and Technical Center
*Grant recipient
RESTORE ACT BY THE NUMBERS
Current allocations as of May 13:
●$7,475,519: money allocated for Okaloosa County from Transocean and Anadarko settlement
●$5.5 billion: BP penalty money allocated to RESTORE Act over 17 years
●$2.07 million: Allocation to Okaloosa County per year ($35.17M total). Annual payments expected 2017 through 2031
●1: Total RESTORE Act projects funded so far in Florida
Source: Matrix Design Group
WHAT’S ELIGIBLE?
Projects that accomplish these goals are eligible for RESTORE Act funding:
●Restoration and protection of natural resources, ecosystems, fisheries, marine and wildlife habitats, beaches and coastal wetlands of the Gulf Coast Region
●Mitigation of damage to fish, wildlife and natural resources
●Implementation of a federally approved marine, coastal, or comprehensive conservation management plan, including fisheries monitoring
●Workforce development and job creation
●Improvements to or on state parks located in coastal areas affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
●Infrastructure projects benefitting the economy or ecological resources, including port infrastructure
●Coastal flood protection and related infrastructure
●Planning assistance
●Promotion of tourism in the Gulf Coast Region, including promotion of recreational fishing
●Promotion of the consumption of seafood harvested from the Gulf Coast Region
●Administrative costs
Source: Matrix Design Group
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Fed's last-minute requirements stymie North Okaloosa grant recipients
