Wabaunsee USD 329

Wabaunsee USD 329, a Kansas public school district headquartered in Alma, acts as a federal grant recipient under the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, receiving formula grants for rural school support, and as a sub-recipient of block grants and Title I low-income education funding flowing from the Kansas State Department of Education. As a U.S. local government entity and school district, Wabaunsee does not hold federal contracts and does not operate as a federal contractor; its federal footprint consists entirely of grant funding for K–12 education programming.

Wabaunsee's federal funding profile is split between direct grant awards from the Department of Education and pass-through block grants and Title I allocations distributed by the state. The district has received five direct prime grants under the Small, Rural School Achievement Program (CFDA not specified in source), with awards in July 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. The most recent direct award, dated July 1, 2026, carries an ultimate completion date of September 30, 2027. Beyond the direct formula grants, Wabaunsee has been a sub-recipient of twenty-eight block grants and Title I low-income education sub-awards flowing from the Kansas State Department of Education, with sub-award dates spanning August 2022 through July 2026. The combined dollars obligated across all forty-eight awards (prime and sub) total $1.5 million over the source period.

Activity has accelerated in recent years. The district received two awards in 2022, two in 2023, eight in 2024, nine in 2025, and ten in 2026. Only one award is scheduled to reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, indicating a stable pipeline of educational funding through mid-2027. All federal funding sources are concentrated in two customer agencies: the Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (26 awards) and the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (22 awards), the latter likely representing child nutrition program allocations. Wabaunsee operates as a prime recipient on 42% of awards (primarily the Department of Education direct grants) and as a sub-recipient on 58% (the state pass-through block and Title I awards). The district's federal engagement is fundamentally different from federal contractors — it receives appropriated education funding to support rural school operations and student services, not to deliver goods or services to federal agencies.