School superintendents keep watch on stimulus package

YOUNGSTOWN — Ronald Iarussi believes that the education benefits found in President Barack Obama’s stimulus package are primarily designed to fund the shortcomings of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

The government created a lot of program requirements without providing the money necessary to run them and stimulus plan money earmarked for special education and Title I intervention and other programs will help with that shortcoming, said Iarussi, superintendent of the Columbiana schools.

Columbiana is slated to receive some $240,000 in additional special education money and just over $100,000 in additional Title I money, along with just more than $150,000 in construction funds.

“We would like to add two more special education teachers, which we desperately need,” Iarussi said, noting that the stimulus package would result in job creation.

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com