AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – As COVID funds come to an end, many Texas Panhandle schools are facing financial challenges as they work to find alternative funding options for programs.
For Panhandle and Sanford-Fritch ISD, the money was used to add counseling services for its students, update technology for remote learning and make up for a loss of learning.
“When the COVID pandemic happened, there was a great need immediately,” said Dr. John Sherrill, superintendent, Panhandle ISD. “So what we did is we really tried to be aggressive on how we utilized those funds and be conservative with the approach. But we wanted to have every angle covered and that was really under previous administration and and the business manager. They did a great job in that.”
Panhandle ISD says they received around $60,000-$70,000 of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which they used to gain additional counselors and upgrade technology.
“When we receive money from the federal government or the state government there’s certain requirements for that money,” said Sherrill. “So we wanted to make sure that we colored inside those lines, of course, but that we provide the services to our kids as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Sanford-Fritch ISD says they received over $700,000 in ESSER funds and used all of the money on safety and health improvements to the schools.
“To know exactly what we need, we have to see what we put in place. How that’s going to work out and you know, the one-to-one chrome books, you know. That’s taken a little bit of time to get used to, it’s not something we had before,” said Richard Hein, assistant superintendent of operations, Sanford-Fritch ISD. “And so it takes a little bit of time, so we’ll have to revaluate as we go and see if we add anything else in the future.”
Districts are now having to come up with ways to maintain these items that they bought with COVID-related funds.
School officials say they are having to look into their budgets and find items where they may be able to save and allocate that money towards the new services.
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