Skip to main content

School Consolidated Grants Awarded to Support Seven Projects Statewide

May 22, 2015

LANSING –Six regional school districts are receiving portions of $2 million in state grants this year to help defray costs in their efforts to consolidate local districts and services, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) announced today.

The state funds for the School Consolidation Grants, initiated and approved by the Michigan Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder, are providing fully-funded competitive grants to five of the intermediate school districts (ISD). One of those districts, Ingham, also is receiving a partially-funded grant, along with a partially-funded grant to a sixth ISD.

"These grants support the ongoing strategy of consolidating districts across the state where it makes sense, and streamlining their services and operations in other cases,” said State Superintendent Mike Flanagan. “The grants will help increase efficiencies in school districts.”

In all, MDE received 21 applications from 16 districts requesting a total of $8.3 million.

Independent review teams, consisting of internal and external reviewers, scored the grant applications. Successful grants demonstrated the most efficient and effective impact of consolidation efforts.

The two partially-funded grants, to Ingham ISD and Jackson ISD, were the result of the limited amount available and tied review scores.

Grant awards were based on the applicant meeting at least one of several criteria, including:

  • Complete consolidation of districts or intermediate districts
  • Consolidation of individual operations or services between two or more districts, intermediate districts, or other local units of government
  • Consolidation or sharing of technology and data operations between 50 or more districts or five or more intermediate districts

Below is the list of recipients (in alphabetical order) in the latest round of consolidation grants:

District Name

Amount Requested

Amount Awarded

Consolidation Type

Cheboygan-Ostego-Presque Isle ESD

$403,700

$403,700

Academic early warning system, technology

Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD

$171,923

$171,923

Regional academic early warning system

Genesee ISD

$192,000

$192,000

Academic early warning system, technology

Ingham ISD

$454,244

$454,244

Academic early warning system

Ingham ISD

$400,693

$11,012

Instructional data, early reading challenges

Jackson ISD

$577,500

$15,871

Data warehouse, assessments

Kent ISD

$751,250

$751,250

At-risk, early reading challenges system

 

Total consolidation funding was $5 million last year, awarded in two rounds. Three districts were awarded $698,193 in the first round, for complete consolidations only.

Later, after changes to grant criteria, the program once again was opened up to districts consolidating individual operations or services. An additional 14 projects from 13 individual districts/ISDs received funds totaling $4,301,807.