Monadnock Regional School District Invites Community Stakeholders to Provide Input on How Federal Funds are Used

SWANZEY — Superintendent Lisa A. Witte is pleased to invite members of Monadnock Regional School District communities to provide input on how the district should utilize state funding it received recently.

The district received $3,961,969 in funding from the New Hampshire Department of Education as part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act, which included $122.7 billion intended to support local school districts’ continued response to, and recovery from, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Monadnock will receive funding from ARPA through a third round of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER).

Twenty percent of the funding awarded to local school districts is designated for mitigating learning loss that resulted from prolonged school closures and the transition to remote learning during the last two school years.

Residents of the towns Monadnock serves are encouraged to provide feedback on how the district should allocate its remaining ESSER funding, which will be factored into the district’s decisions.

Some of the permitted uses of the ESSER funding include, but are not limited to:

• Training and professional development for staff of the LEA on sanitation and minimizing the spread of infectious diseases.
• Purchasing supplies to sanitize and clean the facilities of an LEA, including buildings operated by such agency.
• Planning for, coordinating, and implementing activities during long-term closures, including providing meals to eligible students and providing technology for online learning to all students.
• Purchasing educational technology (including hardware, software, and connectivity) for students who are served by the district that aids in regular and substantive educational interaction between students and their classroom instructors, including low-income students and children with disabilities, which may include assistive technology or adaptive equipment.
• Providing mental health services and supports, including through the implementation of evidence-based full-service community schools.
• Planning and implementing activities related to summer learning and supplemental afterschool programs.
• Addressing learning loss among students, including low-income students, children with disabilities, English learners, racial and ethnic minorities, students experiencing homelessness, and children and youth in foster care.
• School facility repairs and improvements to enable operation of schools to reduce risk of virus transmission and exposure to environmental health hazards, and to support student health needs.
• Inspection, testing, maintenance, repair, replacement, and upgrade projects to improve the indoor air quality in school facilities, including mechanical and non-mechanical heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, filtering, purification and other air cleaning, fans, control systems, and window and door repair and replacement.

For a complete list of eligible uses, as well as more background on ARPA and ESSER, click here.

Residents and community stakeholders are invited to submit their input via email by reaching out to grants@mrsd.org.

###