The Obama administration announced Friday that federal stimulus money had created or saved about 7,200 education jobs in Ohio as of Sept. 30.

Although a couple of hundred of those jobs were in Columbus City Schools, the district acknowledged yesterday that many of the "saved" jobs definitely wouldn't have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all.

"I know we explained to (the Ohio Department of Education) what we were doing, and they told us what categories to use," said Jill Dannemiller, director of federal programs for the Columbus schools.

Although other areas of the district's budget might have suffered without the stimulus, district officials said, the jobs report nonetheless highlighted the fuzzy math involved in pinpointing a saved-jobs number.

The Obama administration announced Friday that about 640,000 jobs had been created or saved by the $787 billion stimulus package, with 325,000 of them in education. It didn't differentiate between saved jobs and created jobs.

Federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a conference call with reporters yesterday that the country has "325,000 who would literally not be in the classroom today if not for these funds." But not in Columbus, where the district's finances looked pretty solid before the stimulus. Voters passed a levy last November that should keep the district's books largely in the black until 2012.

Of the 212.5 full-time equivalent jobs the district said were funded with part of the $64 million in stimulus it expects to receive, about 65 percent were "saved," including 36 principals and assistant principals.

So was the district on the verge of laying off 36 school administrators?

"No," Dannemiller said, explaining that the reporting choices were "created" and "saved."

"They weren't 'created,' obviously, so our only other choice was 'saved.'  "

The federal Office of Management and Budget told agencies in June to define a "saved" job as "an existing position that would not have been continued to be filled were it not for Recovery Act funding."

District spokeswoman Kim Norris said the "stabilization" part of the stimulus -- designed to make up state education aid to districts that otherwise might have been cut -- makes up about 6 percent of Columbus schools' state aid. So, she said, if it hadn't been for the stimulus money, the district "would have had some decisions as what to do with that shortfall."

So although 36 principal jobs were not specifically saved, something likely got saved somewhere in the budget, she said.

Columbus also reported the full-time equivalent of 84 part-time reading tutors' jobs saved, plus six teachers who work in the district's most academically troubled schools.

Still, it's difficult to attribute those jobs' survival to the stimulus spending, Dannemiller said.

"It's a difficult question because we didn't have to face that question, because we knew the money was coming," she said.

The district doesn't know what will happen to the positions when the stimulus money runs out, Dannemiller said. The district might end up keeping them, depending on its financial situation.

bbush@dispatch.com