PERRYSBURG — Input from teachers is driving the direction for the additional $3.7 million in American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund budgeting that the school district has been granted.
Each local education agency is required to submit a detailed budget application to the state.
During the regular Tuesday board of education working group meeting, Superintendent Tom Hosler presented the long list of programs and positions that his advisory group put together for possible funding by the one-time ESSER and ARP ESSER supplemental program.
“We wanted to make sure the teachers’ voices were heard and reflected in this plan. We’re really proud of them and I hope we’ve captured the essence of what they wanted to do,” Hosler said. “The next step for us is to tally all of these things, see how much money we have allocated from the state and determine how to prioritize these things”.
Hosler believes that after a cost analysis there will be more than what the funding can cover. The list will then be edited down and brought before the board. Submissions can be updated by the district, as they are not obligated to do everything on the list.
“We will be reimbursed those funds,” Hosler said. “We have to submit a plan to them by the summer and then we will have two years to spend the funds.”
There is also a list of suggestions that are waiting on a cost analysis. There are many restrictions of the possible uses for the funding.
“We have said that we don’t want to add administrators, but the teacher said that there is value in that,” Hosler said.
Examples of some of the 36 funding areas are:
• Math intervention materials for students grades K-8;
• music staffing that would include two half-time positions, or funding for clinicians;
• a high school internship and service coordinator;
• hourly or half-time high school credit recovery staff;
• elementary intervention specialists;
• a district social worker;
• registered behavior technician training for paraprofessional staff.
Commenting on the possible new internship and service coordinator position, Hosler said, “We know that students perform better and are more engaged when they are serving others, so I think that community service and serving others is really important in bringing back that love for school, but it is also great for the community.”
Initially, Perrysburg was to be sixth from the bottom for least money per pupil received. Locally, Ottawa Hills received almost double what Perrysburg was receiving, according to Hosler.
He said that it was based on the census figures, which showed that there were more students in poverty than in Perrysburg. Anthony Wayne initially received approximately triple that of Perrysburg.
Perrysburg’s ESSER funding increased from $246 to $1,000 per pupil.
It was in the fall that the additional money came through.
“The House, Senate, the governor, the department of education, each had a pocket of additional ESSER money that came that they could allocate for any purpose. Every state had that ability. It actually came through the department of education,” Hosler said. “The Senate applied it to, basically, tax benefits for private school tuition. Tax credits. The House didn’t spend it. The department of education didn’t spend it.”
He explained that the additional money then came from the House and department of education allotment.
“We went to the legislature and demonstrated the need, and it wasn’t just in Perrysburg, but also in many other districts,” Hosler said. “That means the programs we are sharing with you now, would be applied against that additional $3.7 million dollars of funding.”
Board members Ray Pohlman, Eric Benington and Lori Reffert said they were satisfied with the list.
“What a great list. I’d hate to be the one to be the one who decides on what remains, because all that money is coming back to help the students,” Pohlman said.
Board member Sue Larimer was absent and excused as she was working at a primary election poll location.
