The Indiana Department of Education recently announced the recipients of a third round of federal funding for school corporations to help offset expenses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shelbyville Central Schools received $4,970,010.28 – more than double what Shelby County’s largest school corporation received in the second round of funding.

“We are working, our administrative team and our board and we’ve met with our teacher team,” said SCS superintendent Mary Harper following Wednesday’s school board meeting. “We are trying to prioritize everything. We are trying to address learning loss and the needs of our students. We don’t have a final plan yet.”

The second round of federal stimulus dollars allocated to Indiana’s public and non-public schools totaled $881 million. The third round allocates an additional $1.8 billion.

The funds can be used to reimburse approved expenses incurred through September 2024. At least 20% of the funding must be used to support accelerated learning opportunities for students, such as summer learning, comprehensive after-school programs, or extended school years programs.

There are deadlines in place for school corporations to meet to get the funding.

“Our ESSER 2 (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) is due on May 14, and our ESSER 3 is due June 14,” said Harper, speaking exclusively with the Shelby County Post. “We are getting quotes on some things. Our hope is by the first of May, or that first week of May, we will be pretty firm in what we are doing on ESSER 2.”

ESSER funds will not be used to enhance teacher salaries or hire new staff, according to Harper.

“We’re not going to be hiring certified staff with our ESSER money that we have to sustain beyond the grant,” said Harper. “Luckily, our board is super supportive and we are hiring two English Language Learners teachers this year, one for Loper (Elementary School) and one for Hendricks (Elementary School), and we are hiring a dean at the high school.

“Those are things we could have included in the grant but, ultimately, after 2024 you have to sustain them, so we are just including them in our regular education fund so those are budgeted and we can keep those positions.”

Infrastructure and technological advances are key focal points, according to Harper.

“First thing, we are looking at the needs of our students, but (the grant) is really open in terms of technology and infrastructure and looking at learning loss, accelerated learning, and there is also updated technology and we are definitely going to take advantage of that.”

While five of the six schools in the SCS system have avoided hybrid learning or complete e-Leaning situations during the pandemic, there will still be health concerns when the 2021-2022 school year begins in August.

“In terms of spacing students out, we can update some spaces,” she said. “We are going to do some things with infrastructure which will help us in the long run.”

Harper does not expect Shelbyville’s elementary students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by August. The same may be true of middle school students.

“So we are going to take advantage of (the grant money) and try to expand some spaces we will be able to use,” she continued. “I am thinking larger activities where we can spread students out so they are not as close together. That way if a student tests positive, we are not sending large groups of students home as close contacts.”

The three rounds of federal funding have provided SCS with $7,611,189.56.

“It’s great for the corporation,” said Harper. “I’m excited about the budget increasing because ideally we want to hire more staff, decrease class sizes, and get support staff in to help our students but it’s risky to hire staff on money that you know will not be there in a couple of years.

“I understand districts are doing that with ESSER. The last thing I want to do is be in the middle of a (reduction in force). That’s never healthy for the district. So as much as the staff we feel is needed and we can absorb into our education fund, then we can spend ESSER money for other things.”

The third round of federal funding also provided $819,908.24 to Shelby Eastern Schools (Morristown and Waldron), $659,895.79 to Southwestern Consolidated Schools, and $1,487.876.49 to Northwestern Consolidated Schools (Triton Central).

In surrounding schools systems, Bartholomew Consolidated Schools (Columbus) received $13,845,308.94 in ESSER 3 funding; Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corporation (Hauser) $737,448,46; Decatur County Community Schools $1,912,751.19; Greensburg Community Schools $3,531,689.92; Southern Hancock Consolidated Community Schools (New Palestine) $606,456.45; Greenfield-Central Community Schools $2,710,877.58; Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation $1,469,225.83; and Eastern Hancock Consolidated Community Schools $629,790.04.