COVID stimulus funding for school district to end in 2024

Focuses on reopening, personnel and mental health

[  By Kendra Walker  ]

During an October 24 work session, school district business manager Tia Mills provided the Gunnison Watershed School District board with a summary of how much the school district has received in COVID stimulus funds and what they have been used toward so far. 

In March 2020, the schools shut down to in-person learning due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Students finished the remainder of the school year online. However, the district managed to open back up to in-person learning in fall 2020 through increased health protocols.

Mills explains that the district benefitted greatly because of the COVID stimulus funds it received. “I really do believe the COVID relief fund helped us get open that year. There’s no way we could have done what we’ve done without those,” she said. 

To date, the district has received a total of $3.9 million in stimulus funds since March 2020: $951,052 from Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF); $2.5 million from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER); and $432,601 from other stimulus grants. 

“Money we have spent to date will pretty much be between personnel (51%) and operating (49%),” said Mills. In terms of all uses of funds, staff took up the highest percentage at 28%, followed by mental health at 25%. 

CRF spending

The CARES Act established the CRF to support states with expenses due to COVID-19. Mills noted that the CRF funds were used to react to the emergence of the pandemic and plan for the district’s reopening. “This money helped us open school for the 20/2021 school year,” said Mills.

Funds were mostly spent to support technology, for online learning, to prepare facilities for in-person learning during the 2020/21 school year and to purchase supplies to promote social distancing, air quality, etc. 

ESSER spending

The 2020 Cares Act included funding through the ESSER fund, known as ESSER I. In December 2020, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation (CRRSA) added additional funding into the ESSER fund, known as ESSER II. GWSD has spent all of ESSER I and II funds. 

In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan provided more funding into ESSER III. GWSD still has ESSER III to spend and so far has used the funds to target needs identified as a result of COVID, such as learning loss and supporting mental health needs. 

“We pretty much had all the social distancing supplies we needed through CRF, so ESSER money allowed us to see where our problems were and to meet the needs of the kids and teachers,” said Mills of the increased mental health and learning support. “It was a stressful time and we saw it in our kids.”

Plans moving forward

To date, the district has spent 74% of all funds received. Mills said the district’s top five stimulus priorities include targeted intervention staff, staff and student mental health, 1:1 technology environment and expenses to keep schools open. 

At the end of this school year, on June 30, 2023, funding expires for one Pathways Elementary teacher and additional custodial services. The district has two more years to spend ESSER III funds, which expire June 30, 3024. Positions that were added through the funding that will expire include additional counselors, interventionists, an ELL coordinator, a clinical social worker and 50% of the county’s mental health contract with the district. 

“The hard part is next school year, determining what our priorities are and seeing what of this we can continue with,” said Mills. “But as of June 30, 2024, funding for those go away.”

Mills noted that she is aiming to start those conversations this December. She reiterated that the avenues in which the funds have been spent all support learning loss from the pandemic. “We are spending the money as it was intended, we can confidently say we are doing what we need to do to properly spend this money.”

“We were able to get on it so fast and spend that money and do the things that needed to be done,” agreed board president Tyler Martineau. “We slid back, yes, but we slid back a lot less than we would have. I was just amazed in 2020 and 2021 how fast you got on it to get these things we needed. You spent that money to good end.”

Mills and superintendent Leslie Nichols also credited the hard-working task force of 65 community members that worked over the summer of 2020 to help get the schools open. 

“I’m so grateful for this money and our position to get open and get running,” concluded Mills.