Local taxpayers will get a rare glimpse into the inner workings of school finance when Cherokee County School District financial records are posted online later this fall.

The state Department of Education and school districts must provide quarterly reports on the status of federal stimulus spending starting in October of 2009. These reports may become available for viewing on the federal government's economic stimulus Web site www.recovery.gov in November.

The Cherokee County School District will receive $3,937,000 for federal Title 1 and IDEA programs over the next two years. Title 1 supports academic programs in county schools with high student poverty rates while IDEA funds can be used to educate students with disabilities.

School districts must spend the Title 1 and IDEA stimulus funds by the end of the 2010-2011 school year. The money can be spent in areas such as teacher training, early childhood education and obtaining assistive technology devices for helping students with disabilities in the classroom.

Cherokee County Superintendent Dr. Bill James said the school districts are limited on how the stimulus money can be spent.

"All expenditures must supplement the existing programs and replace or supplant the existing program funding. It can not be used for maintenance, athletics, vehicles, or district office functions," James said. "Online reporting will be required at the federal and state levels to ensure that funds are being spent properly."

The state Comptroller's General Office is still working on developing a software program which will allow the public to track how stimulus funds are spent in 85 school districts, comptroller general Richard Eckstrom said. The comptroller general's office is charged with providing school districts with the tools to make their financial records available online.

"The federal economic stimulus package was designed to stimulate the economy," Eckstrom said. "There are 10 federal agencies sending money to the state. This is an enormous task to track."

Information on the federal government's efforts to implement the economic stimulus package has slowly trickled into state agencies responsible for distributing the money, Eckstrom said.

"It's like flying an airplane and building it at the same time," said Eckstrom, in describing the massive legislative process of crafting the federal stimulus bills. "The guidelines are still trickling in. We are still waiting for information on how to go about meeting these reporting requirements."