Schools Report $2.7 Million In COVID-Related Grants

Roughly $1.8 million of a reported $2.7 million in COVID-related grants has already been spent by the School District, according to figures presented to the Amherst School Committee on April 27 by Assistant Director of Finance, Shannon Bernacchia. The remaining $868,863 is still available but has been earmarked.

Bernacchia explained that two of the grants are reimbursement-based, which means the district has to provide invoices and request reimbursement from the state or federal government. The first of these is the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020. The second is from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Under the CARES Act, the district has spent approximately $929,000, primarily on special education in-home services, and on items related to distance learning including laptop computers, mobile hotspots, and software. Some of these funds have been reimbursed already, according to Bernacchia.

Of the FEMA funds, approximately $630,000 has been spent but Bernacchia reported on April 27 that the district had not yet heard whether these expenditures will be reimbursed. They included room air purifiers, building materials for turning the “quads” at Wildwood and Fort River into what is now termed “halfsies,” separation screens, an ozone generator for sanitizing, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, scrubs, etc. According to Bernacchia, FEMA has been extremely slow to respond, so the district has held off on spending other funds until it becomes clear the expenditures will be reimbursed.

At the Regional School Committee meeting on May 4, Superintendent Michael Morris reported that “multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars” in requested reimbursements from FEMA had recently been rejected. 

Under the first Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER-1), the School District received $186,063, of which, $35,475 has been spent to date. Bernacchia said they plan to use the remainder of the ESSER-1 funds to pay a $250 quarterly stipend to teachers, and an extra $5 per hour to paraprofessionals who are working in close contact with students. In addition, they preserved some funds as a backup source for items rejected for reimbursement by FEMA, including for PPE, contracted special education in-home services, and computers. ESSER-1 funds must be spent by the end of June 2021.

$676,016 in ESSER-2 funds have also been received, none of which have been spent to date. The district has until June 30, 2022 to spend these funds and Bernacchia reported they have several uses in mind including projects to improve the ventilation in the gyms and cafeterias in each of the elementary schools, additional PPE when current supplies are depleted, room dividers, and software subscriptions. In addition, they plan to use ESSER-2 funds to pay for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) to staff isolation rooms in the elementary schools, to pay educators to work on revising curriculum to adjust to current skill levels of students, and to pay extra staff to supervise lunches in classrooms and outdoors. 

A $226,800 grant from the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund (CvRF) was primarily used to pay for contracted in-home special education services and evaluations. CvRF money was also used to support Global Online Academy training for teachers for distance learning, PPE, and laptop computers. Three other smaller grants — the Remote Learning Technology Essentials (RLTE) Program ($24,940), Corona Relief ($52,725), and Food Nutrition ($2,450) — were used to pay for CNAs for isolation rooms, computers, iPads, PPE, disinfectant, and to support food services. 

Although Bernacchia reported there was a total of $868,863 remaining from these COVID-related grants, she cautioned that the funds were already earmarked.

Community Calls For COVID Funds To Offset Budget Cuts
In comments made online and at public meetings, some community members have asked the School Committee and Morris to use COVID-relief funds to fill budget gaps to avoid layoffs and cuts to programming. The next round of stimulus funds for schools, called ESSER-3, which falls under the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021, is expected to be far larger than ESSER-2 and come with fewer restrictions on use.

At the May 4 meeting, however, Morris was reluctant to commit to using COVID funds for budget relief. “We imagine this is the last of the stimulus grants to come for education so we want to be cautious,” he said, noting that he does not yet know exactly how much the district will receive or what expenses the funds could be used for.

Finance Director Doug Slaughter said, “even though there is some latitude within these COVID-relief grants, most have some limitations and must be demonstrably COVID-related. Creative writing is not encouraged.” Slaughter also said it would be problematic for the district to fund regular programming with grants that will go away. 

Echoing that sentiment, Morris said, “we don’t want to set up a cliff that we fall off,” recalling the district’s use of federal stimulus dollars during the recession of 2009/2010. “When they stopped, we had to make more budget cuts because we were paying for things with money that wasn’t sustainable,” Morris said. 

Morris did say, however, that he expects ESSER-3 funds to be available for at least three, and possibly four fiscal years.

Committee-member Kerry Spitzer, who had requested the information on COVID-relief funds, asked that they bring back the topic for further discussion when more is known about ESSER-3. Spitzer said there had been much speculation in the community about how the district should be spending the funds and how it relates to the appropriated budget. “These new [ESSER-3] funds could be used to hire additional educators or avoid layoffs,” she said. (See this Indy article on proposed budget cuts to art and technology.) The next School Committee meeting is May 11. 

In addition to the COVID-related grants, Bernacchia reported that the district received a total of $298,142 in other competitive grants, the largest of which was $127,590 for English Language Learners/bilingual enrichment. $521,853 was also received in state and federal entitlement grants (Title I-IV) that are used to pay for salaries, stipends, and professional development.

Amherst’s contribution to the regional schools budget was approved by the Town Council on May 3. The elementary schools budget will be reviewed at a joint meeting of the Town Council and Finance Committee on May 7. Community feedback can be provided via the Engage Amherst site. The full Town budget, including money for elementary schools, must be adopted by the Town Council by the end of June.