PfISD Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Land addressed the school board during a July 14 meeting and said the funding, which comes from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief III fund, is still in the planning stages.
Information from the Texas Education Agency states Texas was appropriated $11.2 billion in April 2021, and PfISD was allocated $29.7 million, according to district information. PfISD staff began an accelerated stakeholder outreach campaign earlier in 2021 to determine how to utilize the funding.
The last update from Land regarding the ESSER III funding use came Jan. 20 following extended public outreach and internal planning,
At that meeting, Land explained the fund allocation as stated by the Texas Education Agency is intended as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing students and staff to return to school safely and to address student learning loss as a result of COVID-19. She also said the district must use all of the money by Sept. 30, 2024, and plans must be reviewed every six months until September 2023.
In July 2021, Brandy Baker, PfISD's chief academic and innovations officer, said allowable expenditures will include grants, the mitigation of learning loss, health and safety, human resources and maintenance operations.
She added ESSER III guidelines mandate that $5.9 million or more of PfISD's allocation must be spent on learning loss, Baker said, adding much of that will go toward additional tutoring.
During the July 14 meeting, Land said the only changes made since the January update include a change from $16.2 million to $17.5 million allotted to various district departments.
Additionally, the amount allotted to district campuses has changed from $10.6 million to $10 million.
"With the campuses, what we did was we took some expenditures out of the campus accounts and reallocated them to the department budget because they were districtwide expenditures," Land said.
As of the end of May, Land said the district has spent $8.7 million of the $29.7 million.
So far, district documents state $7 million has gone to department expenditures; $800,000 has gone to campus expenditures; and $900,000 has gone to indirect costs.
"It may look like we have not expended a lot of the funds, but just remember that a lot of the funds are in salaries," she said, adding the district will re-evaiuate and reallocate funding as the year winds down.
Land said when the ESSER III funding runs out in September 2024, the district must prepare to either eat the costs through the general fund or eliminate the ESSER-funded items from the budget.
The next ESSER III funding update will take place in January.
