Food-fight alert: Los Angeles, Oakland and Stockton unifieds are among the school districts that would get not a penny to turn around their lowest-performing schools, while most other districts – San Francisco, Fresno and San Bernadino among them – would get all or nearly full funding for all of their schools on the 113-school list.

The state Department of Education posted its recommendations late Friday (question that timing) – for the State Board of Education, which has final say over the funding, to consider on Monday. Big money is at stake – between $150,000 to $6 million per school over three years so, expect the losers to complain loudly at the meeting (if officials are not on vacation and are alerted to show up) about the method that the state and the federal Department of Education chose.

The state received $415 million in School Improvement Grant money, with $316 million available this year, under the Obama administration’s hurried push to force big changes at America’s supposedly worst schools. The state Ed Department used a flawed formula, in part dictated by the Legislature, that excluded some of the lowest performing schools in designating 188 low-income schools to the list (see here and here). All were Title I or Title I-eligible schools. Of the 188, 113 schools from approximately 50 districts chose to apply by the July 2 deadline.

The state established an intricate rating system for each district’s extensive proposal, but first applied a filter that the feds encouraged. Districts that sought money for every one of their schools on the list got priority for funding. Districts that selected only some schools for money were shoved to the bottom.

San Francisco Unified applied for $48.3 million for all 10 of its schools on the list of 188. Ed Department officials are recommending $47.7 million in funding. San Bernadino City Unified applied for $57.7 million for all 11 of its schools and is recommended to receive all but $100,000.

Los Angeles Unified applied for $75 million for a dozen schools, including Crenshaw High and Markham Middle School, the target of a suit challenging layoffs by seniority. But because it didn’t seek any money for 18 other schools on the persistently lowest performing list, the district was completely shut out of funding.

The same was true with eight other districts, seeking money for 18 schools, including three schools in Stockton Unified, three in Oakland Unified and four in Mt. Diablo Unified. In addition, 13 schools from five districts, including eight from Compton Unified, along with eligible two charter schools, were disqualified from funding.

All told, out of 113 schools, only 63 from 30 districts and three charter schools, including the Stanford New School, a high school charter run by the Stanford School of Education (recommended total: $3.5 million) would get funded.  One school board member, Ben Austin, already has said he opposed SIG grants for charter schools on the list.

What’s not fully clear is whether state officials felt they lacked any flexibility, under federal guidelines, to fund any of the schools in the districts that were shut out of any money.

Most choose “transformation”

The Obama adminstration gave districts four choices for funding: shutting down a school; bringing in a charter school operator (“restart” option); firing the principal and hiring at least half new staff (“turnaround” option),  and keeping the staff but instituting a number of reforms, including a longer day, new personnel evaluations and in some cases brining in a new principal. Most districts chose this option, the “transformation” model,  although the feds put a limit for districts with nine or more schools on the list.

However, the feds indicated the turnaround model should receive priority for money, and the state is recommending along that line (see Item 4 on agenda, attachment 9).  Fresno Unified chose the turnaround model for its three schools on the list and got $15 million – a lot of money for relatively small schools, including millions to convert a failed middle school into a fifth-sixth grade academy with a longer school day and extended year, new intervention programs, programs for parents and hiring an additional vice principal and a coach for English learners.

Coachella Valley Unified applied for the turnaround model for West Shores High. With an enrollment of only 415 students, it would get $5.9 million over three years — about the maximum SIG grant.