LONG BRANCH — City school officials and the teachers’ union local have signed onto a federal program that promotes innovation and reform in schools.

Schools Superintendent Joseph Ferraina said last week that the Long Branch school district’s application to receive funding through the federal Race to the Top program was sent to the state after the Board of Education, the local of the New Jersey Education Association and Ferraina approved it.

“The Race to the Top is a big grant,” Ferraina said. “In most of the towns, the union is not signing off on it. Here in Long Branch we have everyone signing off on it.”

The $4.35 billion grant fund, a four-year federal investment in education reform, aims to help states across the nation create academic assessments aligned to a common set of standards, according to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE).

To participate, each district in the state of New Jersey must submit a written memorandum of understanding in support of the state’s application.

The grant is part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The DOE is holding two rounds of competition for the grant money. Applications for the first round — known as phase one — were due on Jan. 19. The federal government will evaluate the applications and winners will be announced in the spring.

Applications for phase two will be due on June 1 and awards will be announced on Sept. 30 for the 2010-11 school year.

Ferraina explained that the district can use the funds for multiple purposes.

“It will be used for many different purposes,” he said. “It can be used for teacher training, anything you might want to restructure to give better service to the children, additional staff, additional programs. There really is a wide range of things you can do with it,”

Ferraina said the program will improve schools throughout the country.

“The Race to the Top means you have to have successful schools,” he said. “The whole goal is for all schools throughout the country to provide a quality education for children.”

The grant application guidelines require each school district to document its past success and outline its plans to extend its reforms by using college- and career-ready standards and assessments; evaluate current faculty and hire new “highly effective educators”; create educational data systems that track student performance; and turn around low-performing schools, according to the DOE website.

Ivette Ricigliano, president of the district’s NJEA local, said the union had nothing to lose by signing the application.

“I attended the state meeting with Lucille Davy [former commissioner of education] and the information clearly states that if the district receives the grant, then they have 90 days to negotiate the terms with the teachers’ union,” she said. “Why not try to get the money, and if the terms can’t be negotiated, then the district will just have to give it back.”

Ricigliano described some of the issues that other locals are concerned about.

“I think the biggest drawback are some of the terms, such as extending the school day for low-performing districts,” she said. “Some of the other concerns that I was hearing is the grant is really focusing on Title I schools, so it is not really an equal grant throughout the state.

“Merit pay was mentioned, along with teacher compensation,” she added. “I think the biggest problem is that a lot of things aren’t clearly defined in the grant as far as what merit pay would constitute and the compensation for teachers.”

The grant project is controversial. The NJEA, which has a total of 203,634 members, is opposed to some of the reforms called for in Race to the Top, citing concerns about teacher quality, test scores and overall student performance.

“NJEA supports the state’s efforts to find new funding for public education,” Barbara Keshishian, NJEA president, said on the website. “But like so many previous federal education mandates, Race to the Top is both economically and educationally unsound.”

Keshishian said the reforms that the grant calls for will not improve student achievement and will only result in “teaching to the test.” The NJEA also believes that tying test scores to teacher evaluations and tenure may harm students.

“From an educational standpoint, it is clear from the state’s application that New Jersey would need to significantly increase the number of students tested annually and the number of tests administered to each student,” Keshishian said.

“We have already learned from No Child Left Behind [NCLB] that a singular focus on standardized tests requires teachers and students to spend far too much time on test preparation, robbing them of opportunities to focus on critical-thinking skills and nontested subjects,” she said.

Ricigliano discussed some of her own concerns with the grant.

“As I look at the grant, my biggest concern is the extension of the school day,” she said. “My other concern is who is going to be financially responsible for it when the grant runs out in four years.

“I think a lot of the taxpayers are focusing on the teachers’ union being against this program, but in reality the taxpayers are going to be responsible for this grant,” she added. “They are not going to take these programs away in four years.

“That question was addressed at the state meeting and it just wasn’t answered clearly,” she continued.

Ricigliano said she is confident that she and Ferraina will ultimately be able reach an agreement if the district receives the grant.

“The teachers’ union isn’t here to prohibit creating new programs, but we want to know how beneficial it will be,” she said. “Our union has a great relationship with the superintendent and the district, and I’m able to help them out when there are problems.

“He is willing to listen to the teachers union on what type of things we need,” she added. “The terms of the grant are clear and it states the district has 90 days to negotiate.”

Ricigliano said that one thing that the union will not agree to is extension of the school day.

“We are not going to negotiate the extra time,” she said. “If the federal grant states that we have to do the extra time, then we won’t do that. “We don’t know what they are going to suggest,” she added. “It is not clear what the extra time means.

“Does it mean we are going to have to extend the school day or does it mean we are going to have more programs after school?”

Ferraina and Ricigliano agreed that despite these concerns, the district should apply for the grant funds.

“We have to see if we get the grant first,” she said. “Our stance in Long Branch is let’s see if we get the money, and if we do, then let’s negotiate.

“We are not going to turn down money at a time like this.”

“I think at a time when the funding is tough to come by, this is a great opportunity to receive funding to do things that you need to do for the children,” Ferraina added.

Staff writer Jacqueline Hlavenka

contributed to this article.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.