ESSER 1 Summary
ESSER 1 was granted through the CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27, 2020, just a couple of weeks after the shutdown. The School District of Fort Atkinson was awarded $252,703 under the ESSER 1 program, of which $18,067 had to be sent to local private schools, leaving the District with $234,636 in available funds. These funds were available to cover costs during the timeframe between March 13, 2020 through September 30, 2022.
Since this program was approved so quickly after the national shutdown, there were some very tight boundaries within which this money could be spent. The focus of this first round of funding was more on mitigation measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, providing virtual instruction, and safely reopening schools when the time was right. As a result, this is mostly where the School District of Fort Atkinson spent these funds. As you will find in the data on this Dashboard, this first round of funding was spent on things like plexiglass, personal protective equipment, signage, and rental of outdoor tents as mitigation strategies for a safe return to in-person school. Along with those measures, funds were also allocated towards software and staff time to plan and implement remote learning in Spring, 2020, as well as the operational setup of our buildings for the return to in-person instruction in Fall, 2020.
With the remainder of the funds carried over to the 2021-22 school year, the District was able to assess learning loss from the closures and focus the last 22% of these funds towards recovery of that learning loss by using it to provide professional learning and coaching in the math department at the high school level.
All of the District’s ESSER 1 funds have been expended as of December 31, 2021. Click on the chart below to learn more and to see examples of this funding in action.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about how the School District of Fort Atkinson is leveraging these one-time federal funds to meet the needs of our 1Fort community.
