Federal stimulus dollars will provide extra math and reading classes at Huntington and Coweeman middle schools in Kelso next year.

The classes — funded by $285,000 in Title I stimulus money — are intended to help struggling students perform at grade level by the time they reach high school, said Kelso Schools Superintendent Glenys Hill.

Students who enter high school ready for ninth grade are less likely to fall behind in credits and drop out, Hill said.

“We’re trying to get them ahead of the curve before we lose them,” Hill said.

Designating Title I dollars to middle schools is an unusual practice, local school officials say.

A majority of school districts give Title I money to elementary schools with high levels of student poverty.

Coweeman and Huntington schools meet student-poverty rate guideline for receiving Title I funding, Hill said, and the decision doesn’t reduce funding for Kelso’s other Title I schools — Wallace, Catlin and Barnes elementaries.

Longview School District allocates Title I money only to elementary schools — St. Helens, Kessler, Mint Valley, Olympic and Northlake. It’s getting an extra $581,000 in Title I stimulus funds this year.

Most districts use Title I money at the elementary level because research indicates students who read at grade level by fourth grade have the strongest likelihood of succeeding at school, said Longview Schools Superintendent Suzanne Cusick.

“And reading, of course, affects everything,” Cusick said. She later added, “It’s just my strong belief, we’re getting these extra dollars and it’s best used at kindergarten through third grade.”

At Huntington, the school this year will offer five periods of math intervention classes to students and three periods of reading intervention, said Principal Elaine Cockrell. Last year, the school could only afford to offer two math intervention classes.

“We’re getting to do both areas and we’re increasing the number of students we can serve,” Cockrell said.

At Coweeman, the school will offer three math and two reading intervention classes with the Title I stimulus money, said Principal Randy Heath. It’s an increase of one math class, but the school had been preparing to cut a math and a reading intervention class this year because of budget cuts, he said.

“We would have lost (two) altogether if this funding hadn’t have come through, he said.

Receiving Title I funds will make both middle schools vulnerable to No Child Left Behind sanctions if they fail to make state-mandated standardized test requirements (such as the WASL). Neither school met those requirements this year.

If either school doesn’t meet benchmarks next year, sanctions will require the school send letters to parents allowing them transfer their students to another middle school in the district, said Mary Beth Tack, Kelso’s director of secondary education.