State officials release guide for schools on how to spend $7 billion pandemic relief funds – By Kevin Bessler, The Center Square
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education are providing a roadmap for school districts on how to spend $7 billion in federal pandemic relief funds provided in the American Rescue Plan to address learning loss and other educational problems that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Learning Renewal Resource Guide details 12 strategies that school districts and higher education institutions can consider to address the pandemic’s short and long-term impacts. The 180-page guide offers ideas from experts and stakeholders from around the state to assist school districts in renewing learning and provide ongoing feedback.
Pritzker said Illinois schools will receive $7 billion over the next several years from the American Rescue Plan.
“All of it focused on learning renewal, and all of it focused on what kinds of summer programs are necessary, what kinds of tutoring may be necessary for kids who may need some extra assistance, mental health support and so on, all of which may be the effects of the pandemic,” Pritzker said.
Biden's American Jobs Plan proposes $100B to improve school infrastructure – By Kara Arundel, K-12 Dive
The American Jobs Plan outlined by the Biden administration Wednesday includes a number of proposals focused on K-12 schools, in addition to the promise of growing the nation's economy and adding hundreds of thousands of jobs by upgrading the nation’s highways, bridges, and water and energy infrastructure, according to a speech President Joe Biden gave Wednesday in Pittsburgh.
Among the proposals for K-12 are $100 billion for upgrading and constructing new public school buildings and $45 million for grants under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to help reduce lead exposure in schools and childcare facilities.
While many education advocates say a comprehensive federal plan and funding for school building improvements is overdue, the entire $2 trillion proposal is dependent on Congressional approval.
Some districts looking to cut back PE as campuses reopen – By Carolyn Jones, EdSource
As many students begin returning to campus after a year of being mostly stuck indoors during school hours staring at screens, some districts in California are cutting the programs that advocates say students need more than ever: physical education.
Faced with declining enrollment, several school districts are trying to save money by laying off or reassigning PE teachers. Hermosa Beach School District, an elementary district south of Santa Monica, laid off its only PE teacher in February. In Capistrano Unified in Orange County, about half the PE teachers have been reassigned, leaving some remaining PE teachers with rosters of more than 500 students. San Lorenzo Unified, south of Oakland, voted to eliminate 12 PE teachers, including its entire elementary PE staff.
These cuts follow deep reductions to PE that many districts made during the pandemic, due to the difficulties of teaching PE virtually. Over the year that campuses were closed, 40% of California PE teachers said they provided less instruction than they did before the pandemic, according to a research brief published in March by the California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
In addition, 1 in 10 PE teachers said they’d been reassigned to teach a subject other than PE, and 2 in 10 elementary schools said they didn’t offer PE at all during the pandemic, according to the report.
A job or a civic duty? Colorado weighs paying school board members – By Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat
More than 60% of students in the Roaring Fork School District are Hispanic, but when Jasmin Ramirez was elected in 2019, she and fellow board member Natalie Torres became the first Latinas to serve on the school board.
Like all Colorado school board seats, it’s a volunteer position that comes with no pay. That sacrifice became even more challenging when Ramirez’s husband lost his income during the pandemic. At the same time, she felt like she brought valuable perspective on the issues facing Latino students — from parents facing COVID risks at work to lack of internet at home — that other school board members lacked.
“It is so important to have diversity on these boards,” she told lawmakers at a recent committee hearing. “Nobody understands that lived experience. It becomes a burden to those of us who want to create change in our communities to do this for free.”
A proposal working its way through the Colorado General Assembly would allow school board members to be compensated for their service for the first time. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Steven Woodrow of Denver and state Sen. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood, both Democrats, doesn’t set the rate of compensation. Instead, school boards could vote on a compensation rate that would go into effect after the next school board election.
