Esther Bennett Elementary School of Sun Valley recently came close to losing four staff members who help students to improve their math and reading skills.

But thanks to federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), those positions will be spared and will help students and teachers already working hard in the classroom — and that’s just a sliver of the good news ARRA is bringing to the Washoe County School District.

“Bennett was going to lose two full-time reading specialists and two part-time math interventionists and what this money will do is keep some of that intact,” said Bennett assistant principal Tammie Stockton. “That’s huge.”

According to Kristen McNeill, director of state and federal programs for the WCSD, under a draft plan a portion of $6.1 million in stimulus funding specifically dedicated to Title I schools will save about 60 positions for one or two academic years and improve student achievement, especially among groups most in need of intervention and corrective action, such as low-income students and limited-English learners.

At a parent meeting Monday to explain how the funding will work for schools that claim Title I status — for which Bennett now qualifies — McNeill and Title I coordinator Chad Hicks explained that some AARA money will either create or save positions that potentially could be cut.

ARRA, signed into law by President Barack Obama in February, is making education reform a high priority. According to WCSD’s draft plan, Gov. Jim Gibbons has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education to accept the stimulus money for Nevada schools, which must be used within two years and could serve low-income populations and students with disabilities.

One piece of good news for the district is the ability to keep or make available new jobs on a one- or two-year basis.

There are specific areas in which these positions are created or saved, McNeill said, such as a home visit pilot program or a 30-day parent involvement program that educates teen mothers and their parents.

A classified position would be created to help secondary schools that have struggling students, an area of particular importance to the district.

“It goes back to all the research that shows that relationships with these kids (is important),” she said.

Hence, about $100,000 would be committed to creating one classified position for two years to help meet the district’s goals of decreasing the high school drop-out rate and increasing the graduation rate, she said.

The draft plan also calls for a school site allocation increase that will allow WCSD to keep one position at each of the district’s 24 Title I schools and create 15 to 17 full-time equivalent jobs for two years.

Bennett, which will join 23 other schools in the district that qualify as Title I for the 2009-2010 school year, will see the benefits of the ARRA guidance in keeping its four jobs that has been critical to student success, Stockton said.

“When students are really struggling they go to see to those specialists to have small group or one-on-one time with them and without those interventionists, all of those would go back to the teacher,” Stockton said.

Bennett Principal Michael Henry said he’ll be able to keep those positions that would have been lost under the failed state SB185 that was meant to fund the revitalization of older schools.

“I had two reading teachers that were funded here through the SB185 grant; I’ll be able to keep one of them,” he said. “I had two 20-hour-a-week teachers that I was going to lose; I’ll be able to keep one of them. I had a wonderful parent facilitator who just does everything that I was going to lose; I’ll be able to keep her.

“I mean, there’s a lot of jobs that are going to stay here that are directly right-hand impacting the classrooms with the kids,” Henry continued. “It’s going to be a huge boost and we were going to be hit really hard.”