Fort Lee School District Stands to Receive $50K in ‘Race to the Top’ Funding

The Fort Lee school district is among 15 “participating” Local Education Agencies, or LEAs—any district or charter school—in Bergen County and 344 in New Jersey that signed up to split the state’s Race to the Top award, the Department of Education announced Friday.

New Jersey was awarded $38 million in December as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top 3 (RTTT3) competition, about half of which will be split among “participating” LEAs, or those currently receiving federal Title I funding that signed up, according to state education officials.

Every LEA in the state had a chance to participate, and about 63 percent of eligible LEAs took advantage of the opportunity to split the $19 million allocation.

Fort Lee’s share would be $50,053, according to the DOE, but Fort Lee Board of Education president Arthur Levine noted that the school board first has to vote on the matter.

“I put us in for it,” Levine said Friday. “But nothing’s official until we get it in writing. Once we physically get it in writing, the board has to vote whether to accept it.”

The Race to the Top funding announcement came just one day after Fort Lee school officials learned the district would receive $1,946,449 in state aid for grades K-12 for 2012-2013, an increase of $428,847—or 28.3 percent—in total aid over last year, marking the second consecutive year that aid to Fort Lee schools has gone up.

BOE Regular Business Meeting Monday

The meets Monday at 8 p.m. for its first regular business meeting at after the district moved its central administration offices last week to space it leased at 2175 Lemoine Ave.—on the sixth floor—just across from the high school.

Starting Monday, the school board will hold private sessions in the high school’s media center, and public meetings will take place in the school’s auditorium.

The agenda for Monday’s BOE meeting can be downloaded by clicking here, or by visiting the school district's website.