School districts around the state and across the nation scrambled last week to set up special board meetings and consider signing a memorandum of understanding tied to federal Race to the Top funding.

Some local schools, including St. Ignace, Les Cheneaux, Mackinaw City, Engadine, Rudyard, and DeTour, signed the agreement, while others, including Moran Township and Pickford, decided not to sign the agreement until more information about its requirements and restrictions is available.

The memorandums, which are required for districts to be eligible for portions of the $400 million the state may receive from the federal government, are commitments from districts to implement the state's continually evolving education reform plan and they were due at intermediate school district offices Thursday, January 7. The signed agreements were then sent on to the state Department of Education Friday, January 8. The state must meet a national deadline of Friday, January 19, to be considered for a part of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top grants available at the federal level.

Memorandums signed by superintendents and school board presidents were received from 11 districts in the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (ISD), although Bois Blanc's did not include the board president's signature and Les Cheneaux's included the union leader's signature, as well.

Four districts in the ISD did not respond by the Friday deadline, including Mackinac Island, Moran Township, Pickford, and Three Lakes Academy in Curtis. Whitefish Township Community Schools sent a message of intent to sign the memorandum, which allows the district an extension up to Tuesday, January 12, to submit the memorandum of understanding directly to the state education department.

Some schools that did not sign the memorandum, including Mackinac and Bois Blanc Islands, would not be eligible for any funding through Race to the Top, since they are not Title I schools, which are required to have at least 40% of their students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.

What is in the Memorandums

The Michigan Department of Education initially requested that district superintendents, school board presidents, and the local teacher's union leader sign the memorandums, although state Superintendent Michael Flanagan later told districts that the union leader's signature on the document would be optional.

The agreement spells out pieces of the state's education reform plan that districts agree to put in place, including a transition to enhanced standards and high-quality assessments, setting up data systems to enhance instruction, measuring teacher and principal performance by tracking student progress, helping to turn around the lowest achieving schools in the state, providing professional development opportunities to teachers and principals, and ensuring effective teachers and principals are equally distributed across the state and across subjects.

It also states that the district will provide a more detailed work plan if the state is selected to receive federal funds and that nothing in the program will affect anything determined in employee collective bargaining agreements.

If the state determines that districts are not meeting the agreement, funds could be temporarily withheld or the district could be prevented from spending any grant money already received. Everson: Districts Are Rushed,

but He Recommends Signing

The ISD first received communication about the memorandums and the January deadline on December 9, Superintendent Pete Everson said, which did not provide a lot of time to iron out details and properly consider the complicated program.

"From my perspective, there is a lot of stuff that is being done prematurely," he said. "I think the expectation put on schools by the state superintendent and legislature is hasty, at best."

Despite this rushed, almost literal, "race" to the top, Mr. Everson said he recommended that local districts sign the memorandums for the time being, hoping to secure as much funding for the ISD as possible. The argument to sign, he said, is strengthened by the state's offer to allow districts to get out of the program at a later point if they find the cost of taking part is more costly than not receiving the funding altogether.

Mr. Everson said that the ISD

and its districts have already put into place many of the mandates included in the race to the top plan, including tracking student data, putting standards and assessments in place, and providing professional development to teachers and administrators.

"I think everything that they are asking local districts to do we are doing or are ready to start doing," he said. "I don't see it as a big change."

Why Some Districts Signed

St. Ignace Superintendent Mike Springsteen said both himself and the school board president, Jane Weiss, signed the memorandum, owing to a unanimous vote by board members at a special meeting Monday, January 4. Union representative Lil McDonald withheld her signature from the document because she said the document is not complete and she is not comfortable signing until there is something more substantial to sign.

"It's like signing a contract without all the blanks filled in," Ms. McDonald said. "We want to do it intelligently and in the best interest of our school district. I would want to know first the ramifications for teachers, students, and local parents."

Mr. Springsteen said the St. Ignace Board of Education, which could be eligible for $39,461 under the grant, discussed the pros and cons of signing the memorandum and ultimately decided that since recent state legislation will force Race to the Top goals on districts, St. Ignace might as well attempt to get the money.

"From our perspective," he said, "the laws have been passed and, regardless if anyone signs the memorandums, school districts will have to comply."

The funding amount for St. Ignace represents about 0.5% of the district's total budget, which Mr. Springsteen said could help the school deal with its shrinking programs and budget deficit.

"In the whole scope of things for us, it's not a lot of money," he said. It remains unclear, he said, what restrictions the state or federal government may put on these funds.

"It's a really big unknown," he said. "It may be spent doing things related to these legislative changes. Maybe they would allow us to use that money for some sort of merit pay."

Les Cheneaux Community Schools in Cedarville also approved the memorandum, getting all three requested signatures, including the school board president's, the superintendent's, and that of union representative Gary Welnitz.

Mr. Welnitz said he decided to sign the agreement on behalf of local union teachers after considering that most of the Race to the Top strategies were already in place in the district and getting assurances that meetings between state officials and teacher union heads in Lansing were moving forward toward a resolution.

"I thought that cooperating with our board and our superintendent was in the best interest of our district," he said. "Most of the things in the plan we are already doing here."

District Superintendent Amy Scott said Les Cheneaux could be eligible for $25,837 if Michigan is granted the funds, although what these funds could be used for remains unclear.

"I think it's important for the public to understand that the bulk of the things on the list, we have been striving toward already," Mrs. Scott said. "I think it speaks to the vision of our schools to jump into the 21st century."

Mackinaw City Public Schools debated the issue of the memorandum, Superintendent Jeff Curth said, and eventually both Mr. Curth and the school board president, with support of the board, decided to sign and submit the agreement. This district is not a member of the Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD.

"A lot of the mandates and things they are looking to do in Race to the Top is, I think, really good stuff," he said. "Our pot of money will not even come close to funding the obligations that Mackinaw City Public Schools will have to do under the agreement."

This caused some trepidation in signing the memorandum, Mr. Curth said, but the district is relying on a promise from the state's department of education that a district can opt out of the program if it finds it not to be in the best interest of the school.

"Once we have all the true mandates and hear all the details in this, we will reserve the right to withdraw if it's something we can't cover with those funds," he said. "I think what we are doing is skirting finding the true solution to school funding. The true work that needs to be done is finding a way to fund schools appropriately."

With an annual budget of about $2.3 million, the $9,289 Mackinaw City may be eligible for would constitute about 0.4% of the district's budget.

Rudyard's school board voted unanimously in support of signing the agreement at its Monday, December 21, meeting, although the district's union representative has not yet signed.

Superintendent Nathan Bootz said, even though board members were unsure about the exact requirements and ramifications of the agreement, they wanted to remain in consideration for the $112,948 in funds Rudyard could receive.

"My board and myself are willing to take that leap of faith right now," Mr. Bootz said. "It's kind of like standing in line for an amusement park ride -- if you get out of the line, you are out. We just want to be able to stand in line still."

In the next few months, as more information is decided about Race to the Top specifics, he said Rudyard would reevaluate its participation in the program and see if it's worth the money for the district.

Engadine Consolidated Schools also signed the memorandum of understanding, but the union representative did not. Superintendent Angie McArthur said the district may be eligible for $21,453 through Race to the Top.

DeTour Area Schools approved the memorandum during a meeting Wednesday, January 6, even though the local union representative did not sign it. District

Superintendent Angela Reed said the possible $8,932 in funds would represent about 0.4% of the district's $2.5 million annual budget.

Many of the Race to the Top requirements and goals are things DeTour and other schools in the intermediate school district are already doing, Ms. Reed said, and the board realized that recent legislation will likely make the changes required, with or without the grant money.

"We are going to have to do it. We might as well put ourselves in line to receive some of the money if we do receive some of the grant," she said.

The state Department of Education's promise to allow districts to opt-out of the agreement after the fact also factored into the board's decision, she said.

The biggest change agreeing to the terms of the memorandum would bring about at the district, Ms. Reed said, was the shift to using student performance data to evaluate teachers and principals. Currently, the district collects data on student performance, she said. It is used for the school improvement plan but not to evaluate individual teachers.

"I understand the hesitancy from the union's position," she said. "There are a lot of unknowns there. The leap of faith that the state is going to do what is in the best interest of the school is on shaky ground, I think."

Why Some Districts

Did Not Sign

Moran Township Superintendent Bill Peltier said the school board declined to vote at a special meeting Wednesday, January 6, since board members felt they did not have enough information on the program to make a decision.

"They would like to see the fine print," Mr. Peltier said. "They decided they did not have enough information to sign their name to something which they don't know what they are agreeing to."

The $6,074 that would be allocated to Moran Township, he said, accounted for about 0.6% of the school's $1 million annual budget. One concern under the Race to the Top program, Mr. Peltier said, is that implementing the required changes would cost more than the total grant amount.

"If they get more information, they might change their mind," he said.

The Pickford Public School Board passed a resolution to not sign the memorandum at its meeting in December.

"I recommended against signing," Superintendent Keith Krahnke said. "I did not think it was in the best interest of our district."

This decision, he said, was based on the combination of the uncertainty of asking himself and his board to sign what appeared to be a contract with no terms, and the possibility that implementing the reforms would cost more than would be received in grant funds.

"Some of the reforms have merit," he said, "but some of them are very scary."

Many of the changes planned in the memorandum and in recent state legislation, he said, mandate processes that Pickford and other districts have been doing for years. Creating a common core curriculum across the state and nation, improving the quality of administration, and using student data in decision making are three facets of the new plan that the district has already been doing, Mr. Krahnke said.

"The bulk of this legislation puts a new twist on some things that we've been working on in the state of Michigan, certainly since No Child Left Behind," he said. Even though Pickford has declined to sign the memorandum at this time, he said the district will likely need to comply with the new laws whether they receive federal funds.

The Michigan Department of Education has reported that districts that have not signed the memorandums of understanding will not be eligible for any federal funds secured by the state as a part of Race to the Top. Any funds originally allocated to these districts could still be collected by the state, which will spread the extra funds out among the state districts that do sign the agreements.