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Date: 6/21/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — More than $3 million of federal money remains to be spent even after a portion was used to pay salaries in the fiscal year 2024 West Springfield school budget approved this month.
The town received three rounds of ESSER funding — Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief — coinciding with the three coronavirus pandemic relief bills passed by Congress in 2020 and 2021. Rounds I and II are already spent. The third grant was for $9.7 million, School Business Administrator Adam Tarquini told the Town Council on June 5, with over $6 million spent. Tarquini said there is a deadline of September 2024 to spend the remaining ESSER III funds.
Past coronavirus pandemic-era budgets have used ESSER funds to hire counseling and academic enrichment staff, addressing the social-emotional and learning loss effects of remote learning. The School Committee had hoped to end the use of ESSER funding for staff this year by shifting all remaining salaries into the operating budget. Late in the budget process, Mayor William Reichelt moved about $900,000 of salaries back into ESSER funding, to reduce the amount that would have to be raised from local taxpayers. This amount represented half the positions funded by ESSER in the previous year.
Councilors Daniel O’Brien and Michael Eger told Tarquini they hope not to see any salaries funded by ESSER next year.
“Any time we get a grant, all of a sudden next year’s budget somehow blooms, because now we have free money, and I’m not sure we’re going to have much good times after this year,” Eger said. “I’m preparing for a recession.”
Tarquini said he expects increases in state aid will allow the schools to shoulder all of the ESSER-funded positions next year.
He said the schools are looking for ways to spend the remaining money. At their June 13 meeting, School Committee members authorized more than $900,000 in spending, mostly on curriculum materials and software licenses. There are also two ESSER-funded capital projects planned for elementary schools this summer: an $80,000 internal renovation to move Fausey School’s main office closer to its front door, and the construction of an enclosed hallway to connect Tatham School’s modular classrooms to its main building. Tarquini said the schools are waiting for quotes on the Tatham project.
He said possible future projects, which are still being discussed, include upgrading the electrical capacity at Fausey, installing a new HVAC chiller at West Springfield Middle School, and installing new security cameras at all district schools.