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Federal grants to many of San Benito County’s rural school districts end Sept. 30. Six of the county’s 11 school districts rely on those grants, which come from the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) run by the U.S. Department of Education, to meet state educational standards. Those six districts have a combined enrollment of about 350 students. With the Department of Education’s mass layoffs in March, there is uncertainty about those districts’ continued access to REAP funding.
Linda Smith is the principal and superintendent at Willow Grove Unified School District. She has applied for REAP funding for her district and said the application period typically opens between March and May. As of May 2, it has not opened yet. Smith said she uses the money for an intervention instructor to help her students improve their reading ability.
“It makes a huge bang for your buck there,” Smith said. “A huge difference in students’ reading.”
Districts receiving REAP funds have flexibility in how they can use the money. Liz Volmer, is the teacher and principal for the Jefferson Elementary School District in Paicines, with an enrollment of just four students, who are all different ages and have different educational needs. She said she uses REAP money to hire a teaching aid to help her.
“As the only staff member, I’m in charge of getting lunches ready, and I’m in charge of recess duty supervision,” Volmer said. “I’m responsible for all the standards at all the different grade levels, and you can’t always combine [students]. So the breadth is just massive for what I have to do to meet public school requirements.”
Panoche School District also uses REAP funds to pay substitute teachers and instructional aides, according to Principal Amanda McCraw. Like Jefferson School District, Panoche has a small enrollment—six kids for the 2024-25 school year. McCraw said the situation presents unique challenges.
“I have four different grade levels that I’m teaching in math,” McCraw said, “so I’ve got four lesson plans a day. It’s not so much about the number of students you have, it’s the number of grade levels you have in one classroom.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cut the department’s staff by half in March. Although a press release announcing the cuts claimed that grants for districts required by federal law would not be affected, almost all the staff in charge of processing grant applications were cut. This will make it much harder for districts to renew their grant funding.
Both Jefferson and Panoche primarily serve students of farmworkers and ranchers, who sometimes live 30 to 60 minutes away from other school districts. Volmer said commutes like that are not realistic for the students or their parents.
“My little ones being in the car that long, an hour every day, and then they’re tired and they’re just sitting in a car instead of playing and reading books,” Volmer said. “It becomes really an issue of, ‘is this really equitable access based on our location. And what kind of a hardship is that putting on the parents who don’t have that bus service?”
John Schilling, superintendent and principal of Southside School District, said his district uses REAP funding for student technology like Chromebooks, which have become increasingly integrated into education standards in California. Schilling expressed concern over Southside’s future access to REAP funding.
“I think we’re all very concerned about some of the rhetoric coming out of the White House in regards to educational funding,” Schilling said. “It seems like Title I funds will be funded for next year, but the year after that, it’s really up in the air. Title II funds, Title V funds, all of those, there’s still a lot of questions about that. So, you know, I think we’re kind of in a wait and see mode at this point.”
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