De Pere School Board discusses COVID-19 relief funds

By Lee Reinsch

Correspondent

DE PERE — Business Manager Dawn Foeller updated the De Pere School Board Dec. 6 on how the district spent COVID-19 relief funds thus far, and how it might spend what’s still coming.

The district received $105,049 from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) I, the first batch of funding in 2020, which Foeller said went toward additional Chromebook purchases to enable every student in the district to have an individual computer to use during virtual learning.

Before the pandemic, she said many of the district’s youngest students shared Chromebooks.

In the spring of 2021, the district received ESSER II funding in the amount of $394,335.

Of that amount, $223,177 went to additional substitute teacher hires, $22,420 for student contact tracing, $142,394 for the online platform and virtual academy and $3,321 went to remote learning instructional materials – for a total of $391,312.

Foeller said the third round of ESSER funding, ESSER III, has yet to arrive, but the district expects it to be just under $900,000.

For the district to utilize ESSER III funds, Pupil Services Director Jerry Nicholson said certain requirements need to be met, with a portion of the money needing to be spent on students facing challenges.

“We’ll look at those targeted groups that ESSER III is intended to have us examine the most,” he said. “That can be students with disabilities, students who may have more economic challenges, students who may be from families in transition or homeless, English language learners – it just depends on all of those details that come out.”

The language for ESSER funding was written in 2020 when many schools were learning virtually, but Superintendent Ben Villarruel said the district still needs to adhere to it.

“In December of 2020, when they (lawmakers and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction) were thinking about ESSER III, what was on their mind were the large urban school districts that were going virtual – New York, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee,” he said. “So, the impetus for ESSER III really was to assist school districts with two things – No. 1, to reopen for face-to-face instruction, and No. 2, to address learning needs for those students who suffered during the pandemic.”

Because district schools have been back to in-person learning for a year, he said the emphasis will be on face-to-face instruction and making sure students are successful.

Villarruel said parent-teacher organizations may play a role in the brainstorming process and will be invited to take part in the discussion on how ESSER III might be used.