The federal government shutdown continues into its fourth week, and its impacts here in the Upper Peninsula have been minimal…so far. In the Escanaba Area Public Schools, Superintendent Coby Fletcher tells the Radio Results Network that there’s concern about the food service program, if the shutdown drags on.
“We participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (through the US Department of Agriculture) which provides free breakfast and lunch to a large number of our students,” Fletcher told RRN News. “That is funded, at least the last time I checked, through March. So if the government shutdown were to go further than that, we may have some issues with receiving federal monies.
He says that if that happened, the district would keep feeding the kids, with the expectation that the money would come later through reimbursements.
Otherwise, Fletcher says that federal “Title Funds” for things like professional development and programs for at-risk students, have already been doled out to the states through block grants, so the district shouldn’t be effected yet.
Flectcher adds that for special education programs, those funds are also given to the district through reimbursement, so those programs are continuing with no problems. But he says down the road, there could be a backlog of paymnents once the government gets completely up and running again.
