AIU receives $1.5M to help schools through pandemic

Six foundations combined to award the Allegheny Intermediate Unit more than $1.5 million to help support local school districts with educational challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The money the AIU received in late June will be used to address learning loss, provide professional development and assist schools in Allegheny County in other ways.

“Since school buildings closed in March, public school leaders in our region have actively collaborated in an environment of mutual respect to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 virus,” Rosanne Javorsky, the AIU’s interim executive director, said in a statement. “While the AIU sincerely thanks its foundation partners for their generosity, we are mindful that we are just one part of a much larger effort to support students, families, educators and school district leaders and to move our region forward.”

The AIU said the pandemic has exposed “significant gaps” in the capacity for some schools to provide virtual instruction, particularly for vulnerable students and families.

To bridge that gap, the AIU will use foundation money to provide schools with access to nationally recognized experts, subscriptions to instructional platforms and virtual content, program evaluation, virtual webinar rooms and student learning devices.

Ms. Javorsky said support from foundations is a crucial part of the regional efforts to help school districts rethink education.

The AIU received a total of $1,525,000. That includes $750,000 from the Henry L. Hillman

Foundation, $200,000 from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, $200,000 from the Heinz Endowments, $150,000 from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, $150,000 from the Grable Foundation and $75,000 from The Pittsburgh Foundation.

“The pandemic has required educators and education leaders to quickly deploy new technologies and pedagogies in response,” Lisa Johns, vice president of finance for the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, said in a statement. “More than ever before, our children’s futures depend on the ability to innovate new, creative solutions rooted in teaching fundamentals — particularly those children in communities that have been historically underfunded. We are encouraged by the AIU’s collaborative and strategic approach to support educators at this critical time and their specific focus on advancing equity.”

The AIU is a taxpayerfunded agency that provides specialized services to the county’s 42 suburban school districts, as well as nonpublic, charter and vocationaltechnical schools.