provided a new way to reach parents and stakeholders to improve communication, define community priorities for stimulus funds, and learn more about their demo- graphic through data collection.


Pandemic Relief Funds: New Challenges with Choices


Education is among the sectors of the economy hit hard- est by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, more public educa- tion jobs were lost in April 2020 than during the Great Recession (Gould 2021). The effects of classroom clo- sures across the country were ubiquitous; the pandemic widened preexisting gaps for disadvantaged students, exacerbated mental health issues for staff and students, and fueled widespread learning loss, the ripple effects of which have yet to be fully realized. To date, the U.S. Congress has passed six relief pack- ages aimed at combating economic fallout from the pandemic, three of which include funding for elemen- tary and secondary schools. Overall, from March 2020 through March 2021, Congress funneled nearly $190 billion in K–12 funding, called ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief), a historic federal infusion for schools.


Although these funds provide a much-needed lifeline for school districts and local governments, they also bring new hurdles.


Although these funds provide a much-needed lifeline for school districts and local governments, they also bring new hurdles. Faced with an unprecedented cash influx in response to a never-before-seen pandemic, local governments and community leaders must now deter- mine how to invest the funding smartly and equitably. The financial holes formed over the past two years represent only part of the picture; students experienced devastating learning loss, slashed budgets created waves of staffing layoffs, and the vitality of school aid pro- grams was threatened. U.S. Treasury Department (2021) guidelines described in the Federal Register—while relatively flexible to account for range of usage—urge engagement of constituents and communities in develop- ing plans to use these payments.


asbointl.org


Challenge Turned Opportunity


Located north of Philadelphia in Montgomery County, Upper Moreland Township is primarily a residential community. The Upper Moreland Township School District, or UMTSD, encompasses four schools, serves a population of 3,200 students, and employes a little over 200 classroom teachers. In March 2020, UMTSD, alongside all other Penn- sylvanian school districts, shut classroom doors for the foreseeable future because of COVID-19. Like the rest of the country, UMTSD faced an uncertain future: no pre- written guidelines for how to proceed in the present and concern over the challenges it would face down the line. In August 2020, Pennsylvania announced that schools would reopen under new guidelines; going back to the classroom now meant social distancing, mask wearing, and symptom screening upon entrance (Seymour 2020a). However, the decision to reopen was not uncontested. In a nonscientific poll in Pennsylvania, about 43% of the state residents thought students should “absolutely not” return for in-person learning in the fall; 39% said stu- dents “definitely” should, and about 18% were unsure (Seymour 2020b). Nationwide, the Peterson Foundation (2020) found 6 in 10 Americans opposed going back to in-person learning in their states.


The new restrictions produced a challenging environ- ment for daily operations and revealed new needs that stimulus funds could address. Much of the challenge would be finding common ground between those who opposed and those who supported schools’ reopening; thus, stimulus funding needed to satisfy both sides while addressing the core issues at hand. For UMTSD, ESSER funding represented an oppor-


tunity, not an obstacle. In June 2021, UMTSD turned to a company that makes public engagement software and became the first organization to use the company’s new online community engagement tool.


Deploying an Online Tool for Engagement


The online community engagement tool offers cities, counties, school districts, and other agencies the oppor- tunity to quickly and easily customize an information- and graphic-rich interactive page that gathers input from parents and other stakeholders on the allocation of one- time or fixed budgetary expenses. In the case of UMTSD, the district’s interactive page featured a selection of possible uses for $2.3 million from the ESSER fund, which mandates public engage- ment and often documentation of the engagement pro- cess. The tool also can be used to allocate stimulus funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and can be created in as little as one hour.


SCHOOL BUSINESS AFFAIRS | MAY 2022 9


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