Although students have returned to school full time, every six months, Ector County ISD has to let people know that there is a plan for a return to in-person learning.
It’s part of the law that implemented Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. For ESSER 3, ECISD received $55 million.
Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins said ECISD has received various state and federal COVID funds – some of which were federal ESSER funds. The ESSER funds total $93,178,452 and is the bulk of the near $105 million in COVID funds, he said.
Executive Director of Federal & State Programs Julia Willett-Weekly said the purpose of the survey is to make people aware of a return to in-person learning.
The law requires regular meetings of the Opening School Team every six months, but the group of 36 was meeting every week for a while. Their next meeting is expected this month.
“That’s the whole purpose is every six months we have to survey and let people know hey, here’s where a return to in person learning is and we’d like your feedback. What do you like about where we are with our return to in-person learning and then we meet as a group and review the surveys to discuss any kind of changes that might be done based on it. We have to do that throughout the life of ESSER 3, which will not be over for two more years,” Willett-Weekly said.
She acknowledged that this is probably aimed at districts that took longer to go back to in-person learning.
“Texas is kind of leading the way. There were schools up through last January that had not met in person since COVID happened. But Texas is not. We didn’t allow that. We said get those babies back to school,” Willett-Weekly said.
The public comments are in English and Spanish and they are with the safe to return to in-person instruction. The district has a use of funds plan for its ESSER funds, which was developed with the input of parents and community members.
“We stick to that use of funds plan and (Superintendent) Dr. (Scott) Muri has been very strong in making sure that he approves whatever we’ve done with the money in relationship to this plan with a large focus on closing those achievement gaps for kids created by COVID,” she said.
The district started working on its return to in-person learning plan in 2021. The work was led by Stephanie Howard, former ECISD deputy superintendent and now Crane ISD superintendent.
“We covered every component of what’s it going to be like to return to school? What is your experience going to be as somebody wanting to come in? What are we going to honor for people to come into our buildings? If we have a parent, what if we have a student, or we have a student with a disability; who are our most fragile students? How do we ensure that everybody that has something to do with public education has the opportunity to be educated …,” Willett-Weekly said.
The plan covers a variety of things such as meal service, water fountains, logistics and school wide events.
Water bottles were distributed to when the water fountains were closed, but then the School Nutrition Department took the hit on providing every student with water bottles. There were complaints at the middle schools that students were squirting each other with water bottles and weren’t really drinking the water, Willett-Weekly said.
Water was then distributed at breakfast and students could refill them at water fountains, which were only being used as refill stations. Custodians cleaned and disinfected fountains throughout the day.
The team had weekly meetings on their calendars to go over what to do if there was an outbreak and determine what they might have to change immediately.
“… We did some of that this fall because we started our year, doors open and then we had to tighten that up a little bit because we had bad COVID in the fall …,” Willett-Weekly said.
By February, they were able to start relaxing the restrictions.
There were four or five public comments in the first go-round, but they weren’t specific to return to school. In those cases, Willett-Weekly would refer them to the right person.
One person was interested in the daily COVID dashboard because he didn’t think it was updated as often as it should have been.
“We gathered feedback and talked through the things that people had said in February. It seemed like one of the ideas that a parent expressed was something with regards to why can’t we offer financial incentives for kids who show up to school and the same with the teachers, could we pay them more to show up,” Willett-Weekly said.
ECISD state, federal COVID funds
Ector County ISD has received various state and federal COVID funds, some of which were federal ESSER funds.
ESSER totals $93,178,452 – and is the bulk of the near $105 million in COVID funds.
ESSER – Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund – came in four parts:
>> ESSER I $ 5,623,412 Due to this funding, the general fund was reduced by this amount, so all expenditures were supplanted, and they reclassed expenditures from general fund to the ESSER fund in the 20-21 year.
All of it was spent on tech and maintenance salaries, PPE, student equipment.
>> ESSER II $24,897,830 Due to this funding, the general fund was reduced by most of this amount; $22,913,457.17 was supplanted, and the district reclassed expenditures from the general fund to the ESSER fund in the 20-21 year.
In 21/22, ECISD spent the remaining $1,984,372.83 on retention stipends for employees. All of it was spent on tech and maint and nurse and counselor salaries, PPE, student equipment, teaching materials, tech equipment.
>> ESSER III $55,935,054 All of this funding is supplemental and ECISD began spending it in 21/22. Spent and planned for tutoring, middle school deans, extra middle school days, social workers, teacher coaching, teaching materials,
statistician, research, social emotional programs, professional development, digital learning specialists.
>> ESSER III TCLAS $ 6,722,156 All of this funding is supplemental and we began spending in 21/22. Fund 279 for $6.7 million is ESSER III; planned spending is summer school, data strategy employees, professional development, teacher resident stipends, tutors.
