The Valley Central School District has received $10 million in grant funding through the Federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, which they will use to build outdoor pavilions at each of the school buildings.

“The reason that we have decided to build pavilions is that one of the biggest problems we had during COVID was spacing,” said Marianne Serratore, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “So, the pavilions will provide an extra 900 square feet that can be used for lunches, study halls or outdoor classroom space.”

The CRRSA Act are federal emergency funds that were given to a state or local educational agency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were funded through two grants: the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER 2 Fund) and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER 2 Fund). These funds can be used for a wide range of activities to address the needs of individual school districts arising from or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic including: responding to students’ social, emotional and mental health needs (SEL); academic needs; funding additional staff; facility repairs, improvements, and supplies to sanitize buildings; ventilation improvements as well as health and safety. Valley Central plans to use the CRRSA ESSER 2 Fund allocation of $3,578,926 for the construction of the outdoor pavilions.

The ARP Act are federal emergency funds that were given to a State or Local Educational Agency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were funded through the ARP-ESSER Grant and require that districts spend a specific portion of their funding on: learning loss; summer learning/enrichment and extended day programs throughout the school year. The remaining funds can be used on the same items as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Grant. These items include purchasing supplies to sanitize/clean buildings, repairing and improving school facilities to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, improving indoor air quality, addressing the needs of students with disabilities, low-income families, English language learners and racial ethnic/minority students. The remaining funds can also be used for purchasing educational technology, providing mental health services and support in addition to other activities necessary to maintain operations and continuity of services.

These federal emergency funding resources are available for a wide range of activities to address diverse needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic including responding to students’ social, emotional, mental health and academic needs. Some uses may be directly focused on health and safety, including but not limited to heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades. Other uses could be used for providing accelerated learning opportunities, implementing rigorous curricula and funding additional school staff. The VCSD received $3,926,767 in funding from the CRRSA Act and $6,332,599 from the ARP Act.

The district will also use this money for ventilation and facility improvements. The CRRSA GEER 2 Fund allocation of $347,841 is planned to be used for desk dividers and flexible seating.

ARP ESSER funding will be used for several different purposes. $362,345 will go toward a state-level enrichment grant and another $362,345 will go toward a state-level reserve comprehensive after school grant. $1,811,673 will be allocated for state-level reserve for learning loss and $759,247 will go toward a reserve for learning loss. The remaining $3,036,989 will go toward any other needs of the district that fall under the grant guidelines.

The state-level reserve summer enrichment grant of $362,345 is for a three-year period. The VCSD plans to use this money for a summer enrichment program, summer enrichment supplies, secondary summer school teachers and support staff as well as a social emotional learning camp.

The state-level reserve comprehensive after school grant budget of $362,345 will go toward secondary after school advisors for social emotional support, secondary after school programs, after school program supplies, before school programs at the elementary schools, fitness, recreation and SEL intramurals as well as supplies for a fitness program.

In addition, the state-level reserve for learning and the Local Educational Agency Reserve for Learning Loss ($4,339,812) is also proposed for a three-year period. It covers summer school teachers and support staff for elementary schools, summer school supplies, summer school transportation, summer food service workers and summer school food (drinks and snacks). Funds will also go toward anticipated staffing, which includes an elementary school counselor, mental health counselors at the high school and middle school, a physical education/health teacher, an English as a new language (ENL) teacher and a technology teacher beginning in 2022-2023. Funding will also go toward the check and connect program and supplies for the mindfulness room.

Other needs of the district that fall within the grant guidelines ($1,268,097) will go toward library books to represent all cultures and races, a panorama survey, portable air conditioners for summer school, Tang Math Software for all the elementary schools, virtual reality software and any other school district needs.

VC is utilizing the grant funds to support its goal to increase student achievement. They are able to meet this goal by providing an expanded summer school program for elementary and secondary school students as well as by offering new summer enrichment opportunities. In addition, they will meet this goal by adding extended day programs, fostering a diverse and inclusive culture, providing social emotional support and expanding their academic offerings.

By hiring new school and mental health counselors, an additional ENL teacher, an additional physical education/health teacher and an additional instructional technology teacher, the district will meet its goal of attracting and retaining a knowledgeable and dedicated staff.

VC aims to serve as the cornerstone of the community. The grant funding will help them achieve this goal by establishing partnerships based on open communication, trust and collaboration with the community. They also plan to accomplish this goal by maintaining high quality schools that are an investment for their community. Maintaining a welcoming and accessible environment for the whole child, whole staff and whole community is another method VC will employ to meet their goal of serving as the cornerstone of the community.

The district also wants to use the grant funding to maintain and improve its facilities in order to support the goals previously mentioned. They want to improve ventilation, make facility repairs and upgrades, construct pavilions to provide additional outdoor classroom space in addition to providing flexible seating.

VC must submit their plan for how they aim to utilize the CRRSA funding to the New York State Education Department (NYSED) by July 15. This funding can be used for expenses from March 13, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2023.