Thomasville City Schools is joining a statewide effort to get its hands on more stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

TCS Superintendent Keith Tobin will speak to school board members this afternoon at their monthly meeting about “Race to the Top,” a competitive grant program through which states compete for discretionary funds from the federal government for reforming education.

More than $4 billion is available through the “Race to the Top” program with North Carolina eligible to receive around $400 million of the new stimulus money. If North Carolina is one of the lucky states to receive the grant Tobin said TCS’ share could amount to $200,000 a year for the next four years. For North Carolina to have a shot at the funds, a grant proposal must be submitted by Jan. 19, 2011.

“We’ve done that,” Tobin said. “First of all, there’s no guarantee North Carolina is going to get the money. Approximately 10 to 20 states will be receiving the money, so I think we have a great chance. Our state department has worked really hard on it.”

Tobin said that should North Carolina be awarded the grant, half of the $400 million will be divided up amongst the school systems, based on Title 1 funding. The other half is for innovative initiatives across the state. Once the money is awarded, school systems will have requirements from the state that are in line with federal requirements in several different areas, including assessments for standards and accountability.

“We have that assessment piece in place,” said Tobin. “Maybe not the way they’re going to ask us to do it, but we have formative and summative assessments in place that is what they’re after, so I feel good about that.”

There also will be professional development and evaluation pieces that are being met with some uncertainty from superintendents across the state. Tobin said part of the evaluation piece for teachers would be based on student growth in the classroom. Teachers may also be awarded performance pay under “Race to the Top” money.

“There are some issues there involving fairness and consistency for each teacher,” Tobin said. “The whole issue is how to do it fairly, how to do it consistently and how to do it where everybody has equal opportunity to receive that pay. There’s some work to be done, no doubt, but it’s an opportunity to get some funding in our system that we don’t already have, and that’s a guaranteed four-year funding stream for us. That will be a big hit for us.”

Tobin said strategic goals must be outlined in the proposal regarding graduation rates, increased achievement, producing more college ready students, implementing more challenging courses across the board, increasing the college rate and improving the low performing schools as far as achievement rates.

“This money is intended to reward innovation in the classroom and preparing career-ready students for the 21st century,” said Tobin. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Any available money will be welcome to TCS, as Tobin said the state expects another budget shortfall in 2011. This year, TCS lost five percent, or $750,000, from its budget as the state took a financial hit from the nation’s recession.

Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.