A staffing gap at the state is delaying Alaska school-improvement grants against a hard deadline

Alaska school districts waiting on School Improvement grant approvals will wait longer, because two of the state positions that handle them are vacant or out — and the delay is running up against a deadline that affects when districts get paid.

The state's School Recognition and Support administrator is on maternity leave through August, and the new School Improvement program manager won't start until then either, the Department of Education and Early Development said in an Aug. 3 bulletin. The department didn't estimate when it would finish the stalled reviews.

Districts need their initial grant applications approved by Oct. 31 to submit first-quarter reimbursement requests — so a backlog now could push back the money districts are counting on.

In the meantime, the department is routing general questions to three empowerment specialists and application-specific concerns to each district's school improvement contact. Districts also have to clear a separate step first: final expenditure reports for the prior year are due Aug. 15 and must be done before any new application can be approved.