School districts face the loss of COVID-era education funds

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — During the pandemic, schools across the country received supplemental funding through the federal government.

Those funds were set aside as part of the CARES Act, which was signed into law four years ago. The program is ending, and this is the last school year that money will be available.

Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds poured into district coffers. Millions of dollars were awarded with the intent of addressing the effects of COVID-19 on education.

In Texas, the money was allocated to the Texas Education Agency to distribute to various districts in three stages. The last day school districts have to use that money is September 30.

“There’s a timeline to spend those funds," said La Feria ISD Chief Financial Officer Julio Cavazos. "If you don’t spend those funds, then the state and the federal government will take those funds back.”

The La Feria school district received $16.4 million in total. Cavazos said that from the start, the district knew those funds wouldn't be available forever.

“Our goal was always to do one-time costs, right? So it doesn’t impact the budget the year after they expire,” Cavazos said

Cavazos said part of the money was spent on upgrades to HVAC systems and the purchase of two new buses. Additional staff was hired for after-school tutorials and Summer school to help alleviate any loss of learning issues.

“The intent with that staff was that it was only going to be for that grant period so anybody hired under the ESSER funds, they knew it was only going to be a short-term contract,” Cavazos said.

In Donna, the district said it's been preparing for the money to dry up all year. School district Superintendent Angela Dominguez referred to the situation as "the ESSER cliff."

Donna ISD also hired additional staff for its campuses but chose to keep those instructors beyond the ESSER funds cutoff date. Dominguez said the district's staffing decisions greatly improved student learning.

After looking at the data, the return on investment was too substantial to let personnel go.

“We did notice that the addition, particularly of teaching assistants in the first and second-grade classrooms, had such amazing outcomes for our students that we didn’t want to do away with that,” Dominguez said.

Totaling up the three rounds of funding, Donna ISD was awarded nearly $87 million. Officials wanted to address the problem of learning loss with investment in technology.

The district purchased laptops for some students and teachers, along with touchscreen monitors for classrooms.

“Some of these items we would require to have to go out for a bond or simply do without in the coming school year. So we’ve already had to tighten our belt,” said Superintendent Dominguez.

Both Dominguez and Cavazos said they're hoping the state will step in with additional funds. Districts across Texas are still being funded at 2019 levels after school funding legislation failed to pass in the regular and special sessions.

School funding is tied to average daily attendance, not district enrollment, another aspect of education funding both would like to see the legislature address. Both officials said they've seen serious declines in attendance since the pandemic, both in their own districts and valley-wide.

La Feria ISD and Donna ISD both have more information about ESSER funding on their respective websites.