Officials with the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School District will be in Washington on Jan. 5 for an arbitration hearing into their dispute with FEMA over $7 million in damage from Hurricane Katrina.

The school district has asked for $7.27 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover damage to local school facilities related to the 2005 storm.

FEMA instituted a new arbitration process this year to speed up dispute resolutions. A three-judge administrative law panel’s decision will be binding on both parties.

School district officials also are differing with FEMA over the disposition of insurance money the system received following Katrina.