Irvine Gets Conditional OK to Funnel Grant Funds to Schools

Irvine’s decision to give its financially strapped school system $350,000 in grant money--though the money was earmarked largely for low-income families and affordable housing--is apparently legal, but the school district won’t have much wriggle room in spending the gift.

The money came from about $1.3 million the city received this year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for what are known as Community Development Block Grants. It is a popular program that communities across the nation have counted on for 26 years, mostly to combat urban blight, to spur economic development in poorer neighborhoods or to assist low-income families.

This year, Irvine found itself with a problem--and an immediate solution.

The problem: Grant requests that landed in City Hall, combined, were going to cost less than the amount of money the city was given to spend on the block grants.

The solution: Last month, Irvine voters rejected a $95 parcel tax that would have generated $3 million annually for public schools. That left a gaping hole in the school district’s funding plans. Leaders braced for teacher layoffs and the gutting of popular music, arts and science programs.

So the City Council took an unusual step Tuesday, creating a $346,000 fund for the city’s school district. The money will be added to a one-time donation of $3.9 million that came last month to stave off the cuts for a year, said Sheri Vander Dussen, Irvine’s director of community development.

City leaders, meanwhile, defended their decision.

Councilman Greg Smith was the lone “no” vote Tuesday, but only because he wanted more money to go to the school district, not less.

“The whole purpose of CDBG funds is to improve the community,” Smith said. “To me, there is nothing more heart-and-soul in this community than the school district.”

Part of the money that will be routed to the school district--about $192,000--was sliced away from a block grant request that had been made by a nonprofit group called Families Forward.

The group, which has existed since 1984, serves homeless families, often providing career training and temporary housing for destitute families. The group was planning to use the money that was cut from its proposal to buy its 15th condominium, said Margie Wakeham, the organization’s executive director and herself an Irvine Unified School District board member.

But even Roger Grable, an Irvine attorney and the president of the nonprofit group’s board of directors, seemed resigned that the city had done what was necessary.

“The initial reaction was: ‘Gee, this doesn’t seem to comply,’ ” Grable said. “But we clearly recognize the fact that the school district’s needs are very great right now, and the city was put in a difficult position.”

Irvine will have to walk a fine line in spending the money on schools.

The federal government requires that block grant projects prevent or eliminate slums or blight; meet “urgent” community development needs; or benefit low- and moderate-income families.

Irvine’s plan must meet one of those requirements. It is not expected to eliminate slums, and Peggy Johannsen, a HUD spokeswoman in Washington, said the “urgent” provision is typically reserved for natural disasters, such as tornadoes. So the city will have to route the money to school district plans that specifically meet the need of low- and moderate-income students or handicapped students, Vander Dussen said.

The money has been set aside in a contingency fund, and will only be distributed if the Department of Housing and Urban Development approves the plan. If the school district cannot come up with appropriate ways to spend the money, it will go back to Families Forward.

But HUD does not anticipate having a problem with the proposal, Johannsen said.

“We depend on the local communities to determine their priorities,” she said. “The fact that it is a school does not make it ineligible.”