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GREENSBORO — Budget worries not felt in more than 30 years are prompting the school board to find creative loopholes.

During its meeting tonight, the Guilford County Board of Education will consider lowering thresholds to designate more schools as high-poverty, entitling them to more federal funding.

The proposal would increase the number of those schools from 46 to either 50 or 65, depending on what threshold the board chooses.

The program, called Title I for its federal code designation, is a mixed blessing. While it provides additional funding to those poorer schools, it also punishes those schools if they fail to meet certain testing standards.

A school becomes a Title I school if it is deemed to have a certain percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch. Federal guidelines allow school boards to set that threshold between 35 and 75 percent of the student body.

At the lower percentage, more schools would qualify for federal assistance.

Current Title I thresholds in Guilford County are:

• 60 percent for elementary schools.
• 67 percent for middle schools.
• 75 percent for high schools.

By lowering those thresholds, more schools could receive more money. But this year especially, that could mean even more of a windfall.

President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package includes money specifically for Title I schools. Local school officials believe they could receive about $16 million in additional Title I funding.

Every additional federal dollar would help close what is expected to be a sharp reduction in state funding.

“Spreading the wealth around is how I described it,” said Barbara Zwadyk, the school system’s chief curriculum and organizational development officer. “It is to give some additional support to some additional schools.”

However, school officials previously have been wary of adding Title I schools because of its punitive side. Federal sanctions can end up costing the school system — and local taxpayers — more money.

Schools must fail to meet testing standards two years in a row before the costliest sanctions are applied. Those sanctions include offering parents a choice of other schools to attend, and the school system has to pick up those additional costs, such as transportation.

But the extra stimulus money is only planned for a two-year cycle, which could let schools take advantage of the extra money and then move the schools out of Title I eligibility before sanctions would be imposed .

“What most school systems are thinking about doing is raising those thresholds back up before that happens,” Zwadyk said.

There’s another pitfall. Having more schools in the Title I program could end up diluting the amount of money current Title I schools would receive if the thresholds weren’t changed.

“That’s why I say you’ve got to watch this,” said Alan Duncan, school board chairman.

Duncan wouldn’t say if he supports increasing the number of Title I schools. However, he said it must be considered with the budget cuts the board is facing.

Michael Dearman has two children attending Archer Elementary School, a Title I school. Dearman said he would support adding more local schools to the program.

“As long as the money is divided up equally,” Dearman said. “I feel like every child should have the opportunity to get the things they need.”

Board member Sandra Alexander echoed Duncan’s thoughts and said she wanted to know more about the what strings might be attached to the money.

Some school officials have hoped that money from the economic stimulus plan could save jobs expected to be cut.

While that is one of the accepted uses of the stimulus money outlined by the U.S. Department of Education, it might not be the wisest course to take. That’s because the money is only available for two years, Zwadyk said. If budgets have not improved, those jobs could be lost later.

Board member Paul Daniels said he has reservations about the entire process. He said he believes studies have shown there is rampant fraud on free and reduced lunch applications and institutional maneuvering like this leaves a bad taste in the public’s mouth.

“When you start juggling numbers like that I think that’s what leaves people cynical about things,” he said.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com