Dollars to help our Student Programs

We have been engaged for some time (as are most school districts) with a federal program we refer to as MAA (i.e., Medi-Cal Administrative Activities).  The dollars “earned” are based on providing on-going surveys and accounting of the activities of many of our employees.  This past year, we believed we were not fully utilizing this resource and therefore increased our efforts.  Our staff did a tremendous job and increased the reporting many times.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that it takes literally years for the feds to get around to catching up and paying us for what they identified as legitimate costs.

However, as a result of the efforts this year, we are able to release, on a one-time basis, $500,000 back to our almost 50 schools with the intention that the dollars are to support those programs that students and parents used to support with fees (before we changed our policy).  Therefore, there are options at those schools to provide a minor amount of money to support such things as:  6^th grade science camp, fieldtrips, Mock Trial, band, athletics, etc. 

While this is not enough, it is a start in the right direction and we continue to look for strategies to generate revenues to support these important, valued programs.