Ohio schools to tackle learning loss with $4.5B
As more students settle into classrooms after a year devastated by COVID-19, central Ohio school leaders are planning for how they’ll support children who might need extra help getting their studies back on track.
An upcoming influx of about $4.5 billion for Ohio’s K-12 schools — made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package President Joe Biden signed earlier this month — will help them accomplish that without also devastating their budgets.
This is the third round of such funding for schools and the largest yet.
Unlike previous stimulus packages, this act mandates that schools must
use 20% of the funds to support students who experienced learning loss during the pandemic, through programs such as summer school or tutoring.
The act is expected to provide $288.69 million to Columbus City Schools, an amount that is more than the last two stimulus packages combined and equal to about 22% of the district’s expected overall revenues in the current fiscal year. Columbus will likely be the state’s second-largest recipient, only behind Cleveland, which is expected to receive $289.34 million.
In Columbus, the new stimulus funds will come on top of the $130.78 million awarded in the second round and $30.94 million in the first.
“Had we had to respond to the pandemic out of our regular operating budgets, that could’ve been devastating … We weren’t buying face masks and sanitizer by the million-dollar truckload,” Columbus City Schools Treasurer Stan Bahorek said. “The idea is to supplement us for the things we’re doing to respond to the pandemic that we wouldn’t have normally budgeted for, and over time, that’s morphed into learning loss.”
For context: In the current fiscal year, Columbus City Schools anticipates $1.33 billion in revenue, excluding the stimulus funds, and $1.71 billion in expenditures, according to a dashboard on its website.
Schools are required to spend all American Rescue Plan Act funds by September 2024. In addition to the 20% mandate, all other purchases must be restricted to expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The deadline to spend the first round of funds is September 2022 and the second round is September 2033. The second round of funding is tied to state legislation that hasn’t passed yet so schools don’t yet have access to it.
Because Ohio is distributing stimulus funds based on how many low-income students are enrolled in a district, a handful of schools — including Olentangy, the state’s sixth-largest district, with 22,000 students — won’t receive any funds to offset coronavirus-related expenses, though. Most are small and private or charter schools.
Though the Ohio Department of Education hasn’t yet released a list of exactly how much money each district will receive in this third round of funding, spokeswoman Mandy Minick told The Dispatch this week that the state is expected to use the same formula as the first two rounds to divide the money. Based on the amount of money allocated to Ohio overall, that means districts should expect to receive about 2.2 times the amount they received from the second round in December, Minick said.
Using that calculation, the amounts other central Ohio districts can anticipate in the third round range from
$508,000 in Grandview Heights and $1.14 million in Bexley, to $20.9 million in Westerville and $60.27 million in the South-western school district.
Olentangy Board of Education President Julie Wagner Feasel said she’s frustrated that her district likely won’t get a cut of the support.
“The fact that whoever made this decision thinks we don’t have pandemic expenses because we don’t get Title I funding is outrageous,” Feasel said, referencing the federal program benefitting low-income students, which state officials used to calculate allocations. “We did everything they asked of us to reopen our schools and we’re getting nothing.”
The district’s anticipated revenue this fiscal year is about $264 million and its anticipated expenses will be about the same, she said. An official list of amounts the state will distribute is expected soon, as the state must do so within 60 days of the federal government awarding them, Minick said.
Biden announced this week that his administration is making two-thirds of funds available to states immediately to assist with reopening schools that haven’t yet resumed in-person learning. The other third will be released after states submit plans detailing how they’ll be used.
As of Wednesday, just one of Ohio’s 609 public school districts is still operating remotely. About 76% are hosting classes in-person five days a week, while 24% are in a hybrid model, a combination of in-person and online classes , according to the state.
But school leaders say getting kids
back into classrooms is only the first step.
The funds for academic recovery could be especially impactful in Columbus and the state’s other large, urban districts, where students were learning completely online until just recently. As of Thursday, all Columbus City Schools students, except for a handful of elementary classrooms struggling with staffing challenges, are on a hybrid learning schedule, attending in-person classes twice each week and learning online from home the other three days, spokesman Scott Wortman said.
Gov. Mike Dewine has already asked all districts in Ohio to create academic recovery plans and submit them to the state by April 1.
Students will take federally required standardized tests this spring, which could help shed some light on learning loss when results become available next school year.
An Ohio Department of Education report from early February said scores from Ohio’s fall third-grade reading and kindergarten readiness tests in 2020 are lower than past years, especially among Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students.
Kathryn Moser, executive director of leadership and school programs for Columbus City Schools, said the funds will also help address issues not related to learning.
“We certainly know that the pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the emotional well-being of students and staff,” Moser said.
Specific plans to use the money over the next three years are still in the works, she said.
Districts don’t receive a windfall of cash in these situations, Bahorek explained.
Rather, they must submit applications to the state outlining specific uses to receive cash or be reimbursed for existing purchases, he said.
In central Ohio, the first round of funds, made available in May, helped many districts acquire the technology needed to begin online learning, such as laptops and internet hotspots.
Eventually, spending shifted to equipment needed to bring students back into classrooms, such as masks, sanitizer and plexiglass dividers, as well as training for educators, Moser said.
South-western City Schools Treasurer Hugh Garside said the funds allowed his district to purchase 9,500 laptops so a device was available for every child this school year. Previously, only grades 5-12 had Google Chromebooks.
It also bought new software, laptops for teachers and hundreds of wireless hotspots for students without internet access at home.
The district, in southwestern Franklin County, is the state’s fifth-largest, with more than 22,000 students.
Now leaders will plan for individualized supports for students using this next round of funding, Garside said.
“It’s a blessing,” he said. “If we weren’t getting these additional funds, we were probably going to have to figure out how to allocate our existing resources to meet the needs of our students.” awidmanneese@dispatch.com @Alissawidman