(Delayed in Baltimore but otherwise back in business after a week off – just in time for the start of school in most districts. Where did summer go?)

Facing criticism that state officials wanted to reward millions of federal improvement dollars to some schools and no money to others, the State School Board will vote Aug. 24 on a new plan to distribute $416 million in School Improvement Grants to about half of 188 schools designated the lowest performing in California.

The new plan would give substantial money to two dozen schools for which the state Department of Education had recommended no money. These include nine schools in Los Angeles Unified, three middle schools in Oakland and four schools in Mt. Diablo Unified in Contra Costa County. Superintendents in those districts had complained that the state had rigidly interpreted rules that excluded them.

The state Board of Education is proposing to fund most of these schools primarily by using the $104 million that would have been set aside for next year for 96 schools in districts whose applications were either disqualified or that didn’t pursue the money. The federal government must approve a waiver to use the reserve this year.

The 188 lowest performing schools were eligible for as much as $6 million each over three years if they chose one of four models designated by the Obama administration for school improvement. Each would involve a thorough shakeup – closing down or replacing half the teaching staff or becoming a charter school or adopting a longer day or year and new performance evaluations and, in many instances, replacing the principal.

Faced with a tight application deadline, little time to plan over the summer for staff changes and, in some cases, teacher resistance, 60 districts sought money for only 113 of the 188 schools on the list.  State Ed Department officials disqualified 14 schools, including eight in Compton Unified, and, in the most controversial move, severely penalized those districts, like Los Angeles Unified and Oakland Unified,  that didn’t seek money for all of the schools on the list. At the same time, the Ed Dept.  recommended giving many small schools and big schools close to the same amounts of money, resulting in vastly disproportionate per student allotments for schools with only a few hundred students.

In the revised plan, the state does propose reducing $312 million in grants by about $24 million, mainly by shaving money from schools with under 1,000 students, but inequities remain. Bryant Elementary, a small school  in San Francisco, for example, would still get $5.7 million, nearly the max for any size school.

After jiggling with the formula and using the reserve, the State Board of Education proposes funding $416 million for 92 schools. But if the feds don’t approve the waiver for the reserve, the board could return to its original plan: $312 million for 66 schools, including three charter schools. Either way, most districts will already have started school – and already plunged into turning around their schools – with the uncertainty of not knowing if they’d get any extra money for their efforts.