Optimizing Federal Grants Implementation - A Case Study of New Mexico

Wednesday February 19, 2025
4:15 - 5:15 PM
Ballroom F

During this session participants will learn about the major opportunities for improvement the New Mexico Public Education Department utilized to improve the implementation of federal programs to make drastic improvements to the way the SEA supports statewide and local implementation of ESEA programs. Key topics include reducing administrative burden through streamlined processes, OESE monitoring and Federal compliance, serving all students including a focus on student subgroups, and building robust technical assistance models. Key initiatives highlighted in the session will include:

  • Creating a unified federal funding application to reduce burden
  • Collaboration with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to correct over 60 findings of non-compliance
  • Creating a cross-cutting compliance monitoring team to ensure robust programmatic/fiscal oversight for subrecipients
  • Collaboration with technical assistance partners to extend our impact.

Presenters
April Chavez

April Kateri Chavez is a Tribal Systems Associate at WestEd. She brings more than 9 years of experience working with tribal, state, federal, and higher education institutions to facilitate partner engagement and resource allocation to improve outcomes for students, families, and communities. She supports clients with grants management, and facilitation of planning and process improvement.
Rob Salley

Rob Salley is a Senior Project Director at WestEd where works on the Comprehensive Centers Program serving New Mexico. He has deep technical and policy experience on the programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act most specifically the Title I requirements of school accountability, school improvement, monitoring and public reporting measures.
Kenneth Stowe

Kenneth Stowe has worked for the New Mexico Public Education Department since 2018. In his time, Kenneth has supported the agency by overhauling the State's federal grants oversight, created a unified federal grant application across ESEA and IDEA programs, and worked closely with the OESE to ensure utmost compliance with federal requirements.
type:
Hybrid Lecture
theme:
Policy
audience:
State Leaders
tags:
ESEA Success Stories, Program Implementation and Evaluation