Congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump have less than a week now to finalize a deal to avert a second round of government shutdown.Beyond the 800,000 some federal employees that would have paychecks halted, there could be a real cost to local schools districts.
The Illinois State Board of Education is rolling out a plan to make sure schools will get funds for the Child Nutrition Program in the event of a prolonged shutdown.
“The longer we wait to implement a plan that’s based on equity the less funding will be available later on if there is a continued shutdown in the federal government,” Aranowski says.
That’s Jeff Aranowski, Director of Safety and Healthy Climate with ISBE.
With limited cash the state will prioritize districts and programs based on how able they are to meet student needs with local funds.
Tier 1 schools are being reimbursed at 50 percent, with Tiers 3 and 4 getting no immediate reimbursement.
The USDA distributes funds to the State Board of Education, which then reimburses schools for school lunch, breakfast and some other nutrition related programs.
Superintendent John Asplund says that District 205 would have to dip into reserves to cash flow food service programs, being a Tier 2 district that will get a 25 percent reimbursement.
Asplund says if the shutdown lasted through May, 205 would have to pull around $600,000 from reserves.
He says they should eventually get those funds, but they would lose the interest from reserves.
