NHPS
NHPS' total Covid-relief allocations over the past four years.
Snapshots of new programming at Edgewood thanks to American Rescue Plan dollars.
An outdoor garden and learning space, college courses at Columbia University, and two full-time academic tutors were just a few of the school-boosting services made possible at three of New Haven’s public schools thanks to $126 million in one-time, now-spent federal pandemic-relief funding.
Those details were included in a presentation at last Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting about how New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) as a district, and individual schools in particular, spent a total of $126,240,475 in federal Covid relief. The meeting took place at John S. Martinez School in Fair Haven, and online via Zoom.
For last Tuesday’s presentation, NHPS Asst. Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans was joined by Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) Principal Medria Blue-Ellis and Edgewood School Principal Nick Perrone. Each of their schools received $300,000 apiece in Covid-relief funds.
NHPS Supt. Madeline Negrón said that the presentation was put together to inform the school board and the public of the district’s spending outcomes, as it recently had to obligate all its remaining pandemic-relief funds by a Sept. 30 federal deadline.
Redd-Hannans noted at the start of the presentation that the district spent these funds over the years on what was deemed “urgent” at various stages of the Covid pandemic.
“What may be urgent today may be a little different from what we found was urgent at the start of the pandemic,” she said.
Click here to view the full presentation.
ARP ESSER spending breakdown.
When the national Covid emergency was declared on March 13, 2020, the first federal grant received by NHPS was through the CARES Act. That grant was known as ESSER l, and came in the amount of $8,506,997. The grant was to be used between Aug. 31, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2022.
Next, the district received ESSER ll grants in the amount of $37,716,245, lasting from Jan. 5, 2021 until Sept. 30, 2023.
Then, its final and largest such federal pandemic-relief allocation amounted to $80,017,233, and lasted from Jan. 17, 2022 until Sept. 30, 2024.
Redd-Hannans highlighted significant district expenditures between the three grants. Those included:
• $10,860,000 allocated directly to school principals to spend on school-specific needs.
• $8,696,822 to hire an additional 72 first- through third-grade teachers to reduce class sizes.
• $7,200,000 for staff retention incentives/bonuses.
• $15,402,464 to purchase IT instructional software; Chromebooks, iPads, laptops and other electronic devices to provide every student with a device at home for remote, online-only learning.
• $91,529 to convert several school buildings’ water fountains to water bottle-filling stations.
For a few minutes each on Tuesday, the school leaders shared their goals for the school allocation of hundreds of thousands: Those goals included celebrating student identity, expanding their focus on literacy, increasing experiential learning opportunities, increasing college and career pathways, learning acceleration, closing digital divides, and increasing family and community engagement.
Blue-Ellis shared that ESUMS purchased a service called Equity Lab to allow students to take dual enrollment courses like personal finance at colleges like UPenn, Howard, and Columbia. It also offered students a subscription to Masterclass to personalize their learning for an enhanced capstone program; and they bought a software called Find Your Grind to expose students to career options.
Now that the pandemic relief has ended, ESUMS along with the rest of the public school district’s schools are confronting the challenge of maintaining the new programs, services, and personnel it was able to bring on with the pandemic funds.
Blue-Ellis concluded that ESUMS recently had to reduce its number of Masterclass licenses, end its partnership with Equity Lab, and all of its grades can no longer have 1:1 access to technology.
Edgewood similarly was initially able to use some of the funds to hire two academic tutors to work 34.5 hours a week, but now that the funds have run out, it can only budget for providing the two tutors for 12 hours a week.
The school also had to end its partnership with the Miss Kendra Program for social, emotional supports, and is struggling to annually budget in $3,000 worth of necessary course maintenance and training costs for a high ropes course it built out in the school’s gymnasium with its Covid allocation.
Fair Haven School Principal Monica Morales was not present in person for Tuesday’s meeting, but her school received $450,000 in direct Covid-relief aid, according to the district’s presentation.
The school invested in academic tutors, increased after-school programs, created a student sensory room, and built an outdoor learning space and garden to support middle school science lessons through partner Trifecta. Each of those additions, however, are now either no longer fiscally possible to maintain and have ended or are currently in their last year running.
NHPS staff responses to challenges ahead due to Covid-relief cliff.