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GREENSBORO — Federal stimulus funding to high-poverty schools and special education will save more than 100 Guilford County teaching and administrative jobs.

The funding was considered in budget planning, and those positions are included in the 2009-10 budget.

“We would have had repercussions to the department that would have been absolutely devastating,” said Betty Anne Chandler, executive director for exceptional children.

The school system should receive $16.3 million in stimulus funding for special education and $15.6 million in stimulus funding for high-poverty schools.

School system officials released plans last week for how $35.9 million in Title I funding should be spent. Of that total, $15.6 million is federal stimulus funding to be used over the next two school years.

Title I is a federal program that helps schools with a large population of students living in poverty. Guilford County Schools received $19.9 million in Title I funding during the 2008-09 school year.

“It did save some jobs,” said Don Hare, the school system’s executive director of federal and special programs.

The Title I funding saved 34 teaching jobs. The number of administrative positions was not immediately clear.

Hare said all the positions saved will be revaluated in two years, when the stimulus funding runs out. “I think it’s always better to have something for a short period of time than not at all,” he added.

More funding could become available over the next few weeks and months, Hare said, and could be used to save more jobs.

The Title I funding will go to 46 schools this school year, five more than in 2008-09.

More than $4 million will be spent on administrative costs, including the salaries of 14 administrative positions. That includes Hare’s job as well as the director of Title I and positions that administer academic improvement programs for Title I schools.

Hare also recommends the school system spend $3.5 million, the required 10 percent, on professional development, mostly for teachers. The money will pay for salaries, training and resources aimed at identifying areas of failure and ways to improve.

The plan sets aside $359,407, the required 1 percent, to pay for parental involvement efforts. Principals and leadership teams at Title I schools can use it for things like parent meetings and seminars.

Lissa Harris is a member of Parents Supporting Parents, a local parental advocacy group, and has a fourth-grade daughter at Murphey Traditional Academy, a Title I school. Parents are happy Title I schools will receive more funding, Harris said, but she questions how much input schools are seeking from parents on how to spend that money.

“You really and truly don’t have parents involved in the parent involvement funds,” Harris said. Many schools get input from two or three parents, typically on school leadership teams, she said.

Schools should use the bulk of parental involvement money to help parents understand their children’s academic goals and what parents can do at home to help them meet those goals, Harris said.

The school board is expected to review the Title I and special education spending plans during its July 23 meeting.

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