At the April 25, 2022 Crawford Central School board meeting, the superintendent had a presentation indicating how a recent large lump sum of money from the federal government would be spent. This is in addition to other funds they have received prior. According to discussion during this meeting, the survey had a total of 59 respondents. Compared to the size of the district, that seems like a rather small number. Ann Noonen claimed this survey was put out in an email message to the staff, as well as, a survey done on Facebook. The claim is that there were teachers, community members and staff who responded. We have been trying to locate this survey on Facebook, but have been unsuccessful in doing so. Since the school district also has not placed this presentation on the school website, we had to utilize a screen capture from the video provided by Armstrong to try to understand some of the responses.
Which, technically is a requirement for it to be posted, per the grant agreement;
These will relate in part to some budget figures we will look at in a moment. But, just showing what the public was able to see during the meeting.
Now, it's time to look at some numbers. We want to briefly show you what the school district was slated to receive prior in Covid related funds.
We aren't going to look at all of the line items for grants in the past, because they aren't relevant to how the money today is being spent, or set to be spent. If you would like to look into these for yourself, you will find this information at the following link;
Let's look at what the contract states for the current school year, shall we?
This contract was signed by Mr. Washington on February 28, 2022. All other parties signed off in March, the final signature occurring on April 5, 2022. The date of the school board meeting was April 25, 2022. This contract and all it entails was signed and agreed upon, prior to a public meeting with the school board to discuss this matter? Interesting concept, because last we checked the school board got to make budget decisions.
We also want to show you one interesting stipulation we found;
In short, a stipulation to taking the money means that they can change how they require you to spend the money in the future. It also states what groups they need to focus on with this funding;
Let's move away from that for a minute and look at budget numbers.
More contract details;
See items 2 of the first paragraph, "how the LEA will ensure continuity of services, including but not limited to services to address the students' academic needs, and students' and staff members' social, emotional, mental health, and other needs, which may include...."
But, with only 59 replies, are they doing a due diligence in this obligation? How about the last line of the last paragraph, "will seek public input and take public input into account". Maybe it's time they ask for more insight.
The next finding is too long to go into here, but a lot of useful information regarding ARP ESSER fund provisions.
https://www.education.pa.gov/Schools/safeschools/emergencyplanning/COVID-19/CARESAct/March2021/GuideImplementation/Pages/KeyProvisions.aspx
See the link for CDC site, here's that link; https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcommunity%2Fschools-childcare%2Foperation-strategy.html
Can there be incentives given?
And, in case you want a lengthy read about what the federal register has to say about these funds, that information is here;
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/05/17/2021-10283/coronavirus-state-and-local-fiscal-recovery-funds
There are a lot of reports, contracts, and regulations surrounding these funds. Bottom line though, these funds should be spent in a way that the parents, students, faculty and taxpayers see fit. We understand there are parameters that must be met, but we also understand that parents and teachers would know better than anyone the impact that this pandemic had on their children. It's time we start allowing them to become more involved and actually listen to them.
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