KRS 158.805: Commonwealth school improvement fund -- Purposes -- Criteria for

grants to schools needing assistance.

(1) There is hereby created the Commonwealth school improvement fund to assist local

schools in pursuing new and innovative strategies to meet the educational needs of

the school's students and raise a school's performance level. The Kentucky Board of

Education shall utilize the Commonwealth school improvement fund to provide

grants to schools for the following purposes:

(a) To support teachers a nd administrators in the development of sound and

innovative approaches to improve instruction or management, including better

use of formative and summative, performance-based assessments;

(b) To assist in replicating successful programs developed in othe r districts

including those calculated to reduce achievement gaps as defined in KRS

158.649;

(c) To encourage cooperative instructional or management approaches to specific

school educational problems; and

(d) To encourage teachers and administrators to co nduct experimental programs

to test concepts and applications being advanced as solutions to specific

educational problems.

(2) The Kentucky Board of Education shall develop criteria for awards of grants from

the Commonwealth school improvement fund to sch ools identified by the board as

needing assistance under KRS 158.6455.

(3) The Kentucky Board of Education shall have the sole authority to approve grants

from the fund.

(4) The Kentucky Board of Education may establish priorities for the use of the funds

and, through the Department of Education, shall provide assistance to schools in

preparing their grant proposals. The board shall require that no funds awarded

under the Commonwealth school improvement fund are used to supplant funds

from any other source. Requests may include funding for personnel costs, except

funding for personnel costs shall not continue after school improvement funds are

no longer provided. Requests for necessary equipment may be approved at the

discretion of the state board, however t he cost of equipment purchased by any

grantee shall not exceed twenty percent (20%) of the total amount of money

awarded for each proposal and shall be matched by local funds on a dollar for dollar

basis.

(5) The Kentucky Board of Education shall establish maximums for specific grant

awards. All fund recipients shall provide the board with an accounting of all money

received from the fund and shall report the results and conclusions of any funded

projects to the Kentucky Board of Education. All fund recipie nts shall provide the

board with adequate documentation of all projects to enable replication of

successful projects in other areas of the state.