Area schools to see $37.7M in federal funding
Chronically underfunded Pottstown schools to get nearly $10 million
Nearly $40 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds is being distributed to area school districts.
Topping the list is the Pottstown School District which will receive nearly $10 million ($9,741,181) in relief, according to the state’s list of allocations to all 500 school districts.
Coming in a distant second is the Boyertown Area School District which will receive $4,983,358.
Here are the totals for the other area school districts:
• Spring-Ford — $4,355,676
• Pottsgrove — $3,670,939
• Phoenixville — $3,300,048
• Daniel Boone — $2,881,597
• Owen J. Roberts — $2,834,045
• Upper Perkiomen — $2,377,557
• Perkiomen Valley — $1,790,312
• Methacton — $1,737,960 All total, these local school districts now qualify for $37,672,673 in federal aid.
The funding derives from the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund passed last month by Congress and signed by President Biden.
Pennsylvania’s share was anticipated to be about $4.9 billion to help Pre-K to 12 classrooms deal
with the financial impacts of closed schools due to the pandemic.
Pennsylvania distributed the funds according to federal Title 1A awards distributed in 2020. Title 1A is the federal education funding
“But this funding provides a significant boost to getting students and school faculty safely back on a familiar path, and addresses student learning loss and other educational needs that may have come up over the past year.”
— State Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-146th Dist.
stream providing additional aid to schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families.
“The school districts and charter schools must use at least 20 percent of this money to address learning loss and the social, emotional, and academic needs of underrepresented students, including students from low-income families, students with disabilities, English learners, migrant students, students experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care,” according to a release issued by Gov. Wolf’s office.
“Schools can use the rest of the funding for a wide range of activities, including food service; professional training; technology purchases; sanitization and cleaning supplies; summer and after-school programs; and mental health supports,” according to the release.
Funds must be used by September 2024.
“Our school communities need these additional resources to invest in instructional materials, equipment, facilities, transportation and more, and we are pleased to make these funds available to them,” Department of Education Acting Secretary Noe Ortega said in the release. “These funds will provide more assistance to school communities as we continue to navigate the pandemic.”
Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said although it is too soon to lay out in any detail how the district will spend the aid, “I can tell you right off the bat we’ll spend more than 20 percent of it on learning loss.”
One thing it cannot be spent on, by law, is property tax relief, Rodriguez confirmed.
But before any money is spent, Rodriguez said the district must evaluate where the need is greatest, and where help will have the most impact.
“Because this is a onetime infusion of money, we’ll want to look at any changes we can make to make our facilities safer, making sure our air handling equipment is up to snuff, things like that,” he predicted.
“But really, we want to assess the problem, and that will take time and money to determine what student skills are still strong and what need remediation, and that is something we will be starting this summer and will likely go into next year,” Rodriguez said Monday.
Some of the money may also go to personnel, temporary or otherwise.
“If we can get a secondgrader up to grade reading level by third grade and then that person doesn’t have a job anymore, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, but I’m not too worried as we have more open positions than we do applicants right now,” he said. “No one wants to be a teacher anymore.”
Rodriguez also emphasized that the on-time aid package does nothing to offset the structurally deficient system of Pennsylvania school funding which discriminates “against poor, Black and brown children” and shortchanges Pottstown Schools by more than $13 million each year.
“Listen, this money is great and I’m not complaining, but let’s remember this is a one-time gift and let’s remember where we were when this started. We were already behind wealthier districts,” Rodriguez said.
“We weren’t running on all cylinders when the pandemic hit,” he said. “All this is really doing is ensuring we’re not making the hole we’re trying to dig ourselves out of any bigger.”
Nevertheless. Rodriguez said he is thankful for anything that helps Pottstown students reach for their potential.
“This is great news not just for students and teachers, but for the entire community,” said State Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-146th Dist.
“To say life during the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult — especially for parents and guardians of school-aged children whose routines were thrown into chaos — is the ultimate understatement,” Ciresi said.
“But this funding provides a significant boost to getting students and school faculty safely back on a familiar path, and addresses student learning loss and other educational needs that may have come up over the past year,” he said.
Combined with the commonwealth’s initiative to provide teachers, school staff and contractors the chance to get the singledose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, this funding aims to help schools reopen and safely return students and teachers to classroom settings, said Ciresi.
This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.
“Listen, this money is great and I’m not complaining, but let’s remember this is a one-time gift and let’s remember where we were when this started. We were already behind wealthier districts.”
— Stephen Rodriguez, Pottstown Schools Superintendent