As federal stimulus money begins to spread its way across the country, certain sectors of the economy are guaranteed to save jobs.

One of the major benefactors of the stimulus is the public school system. Prince William County public schools are slated to receive just under $24.8 million from the federal government. Because of that cash, the county has projected that about 304 jobs will be saved during the next budget year.

"Much of the funds (are) going to be going to keep positions that would have otherwise been eliminated," said Ken Blackstone, communications director for PWCS.

Assistant kindergarten teachers were among the biggest winners as more than $2.5 million is designated to save 90 jobs, according to numbers provided by the school system.

"The stimulus funds have provided us the opportunity to continue keeping those positions," said Blackstone.

Originally, Superintendent Steven Walts needed to cut $94 million from the $782 million school budget.

Though the $24.8 million covers only about 26 percent of the budget shortfall, Blackstone explained the additional money coming in would go a long way.

"Federal stimulus funds provided relief but put less significant cuts in place," he said

The county school system also projects about 72 jobs will be covered by cutting class sizes between kindergarten and 12th grade, about 48 jobs from reduction in ESOL class sizes, roughly 62 jobs from reducing elementary class sizes for disadvantaged students, and about 22 or 23 jobs for clerical and custodial work.

Schools that have 40 percent or more of its student population living in poverty fall under the Title 1 banner and received money from the allocations for disadvantaged students.

That can also affect targeted demographics that are statistically more likely to need monetary help. There are 21 elementary schools in the county that fit that description, none of which are west of Manassas.

None of this means those 304 school jobs will be off the chopping block in two years. If more money does not start coming into the school coffers from the county, state and federal governments, then PWCS could be in a similar situation for the 2010-11 school year.

"Each year's budget is a new cycle," said Blackstone. "Next year, [revenue will] have to be identified somewhere or else we might be in the same position again."

Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R-at large) has a problem with how the county school administrators have allocated money.

Stewart said he would have preferred the schools had not given pay raises (also known as cost-of-living adjustments or COLA increases) to employees at a time when the county is slashing operating costs and jobs.

Speaking of the stimulus in general, Stewart said, "Well, I think it's actually damaging to the county to the extent that it postpones the inevitable and it allows the school system to avoid making difficult cost-cutting decisions."

He later contradicted himself in one regard, explaining that, he is not "necessarily going to disagree with them on the jobs that they saved but what I will disagree with them on is the COLA increase.

"If all they had done was restore those jobs but didn't implement the COLA, I wouldn't be complaining," added Stewart.

According to Blackstone, because the budget is year-to-year, the jobs saved this year by the federal stimulus will not necessarily be cut in the future.

"There would be no guarantee that they would come back up as something that would have to be eliminated," he said.

How the county economy recovers during the next year will play a major role in what jobs the school system can afford to keep. Funding formulas and mandates from the state and federal government require some jobs to be filled based on class sizes and thus cannot be cut from a budget.

There will be more school jobs available in the county soon regardless of economics, however, as the high school at Kettle Run, the county's 11th high school, is due to open in 2011.

Also slated to come online in the western end of the county will be a new middle school at Silver Lake and an additional elementary school near the Kettle Run site.

"The tough choice that they should have made this year would be to not proceed with the COLA and to take that money and either put it aside or pay down debt," said Stewart, later adding, "That's long-term thinking that I think they should have implemented but they didn't."