FACILITIES
COVID-Relief Funds: Reducing Operating Costs
and Enhancing Resilience A look at how districts can spend COVID-relief funds to improve facilities. By Anisa Heming and Sara Ross
funds makes them an excellent fit for durable investments in facilities that will yield benefits for years to come. The American Rescue Plan Act details 18 different uses of funds, including a broad range of school facility repairs and improvements. (See pg. 23 sidebar and Table 1 for excerpts of the bill and a time- line for expenditure.)
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School business officials are poised to play a critical role in helping districts navigate the investment of new federal COVID-relief funds. Most SBOs have likely already explored allowable uses for these funds. They may be involved in discus-
ithin the past six months, Congress has passed $176 billion in COVID relief aid for schools: $54 billion in Decem- ber’s Coronavirus Response and Relief
Supplemental Appropriations Act and $122 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act. Together, these two actions will deliver $3,700 per pupil in addition to the 2019– 2020 Title I allocation of $640 per pupil (Jordan 2021). The Department of Education sent general informa- tion to chief state school officers in March 2021, and the Congressional Research Service provided information on the per-state allocation.
Education leaders have significant flexibility in spend- ing the funds, and the needs are great as school districts determine the best way to bring more students back to in-person learning. Facility-related expenses are an allow- able use of the funds, and the one-time nature of these
22 JULY/AUGUST 2021 | SCHOOL BUSINESS AFFAIRS
sions regarding the funds’ highest-impact uses, ways to address learning loss, and students’ social and emotional needs, as well as strategies to keep kids safe in case of future pandemics or extreme weather events. They might be exploring the role outdoor learning may play in returning students to school or focusing on how to address climate change. All the while, they are keeping a keen eye on how to help those students with the greatest need.
Regardless of the focus of their discussions, there’s no question SBOs and their fellow district leaders are wres- tling with what will happen when this emergency fund- ing runs out.
Investments in practical, cost-saving facility upgrades may address these complex challenges and turn a one- time investment of federal funds into a stream of ongo- ing budget savings.
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