Purpose:

The American Rescue Plan Act provides resources to school districts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief's (ESSER III or ARP ESSER) purpose is to help schools and districts safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and must respond to the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of all students, and particularly those disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Priorities:

The priorities of the ESSER III funds are to support activities to address needs arising from the coronavirus pandemic such as:

• Interventions to address lost instructional time and ensure that those interventions respond to students' social, emotional, and academic needs and address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student subgroups (low-income children or 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, such as efforts to improve indoor air quality to reduce the risk of airborne virus transmission

• Purchasing cleaning supplies and training on the proper use of sanitizers to minimize the spread of infectious diseases

• Planning for long-term closures and how to provide items such as meals to eligible students and technology for online learning

• Providing student mental health services and supports

• Planning and implementing activities related to summer learning and supplemental afterschool programs

FY21 Budget = $73,218,902

Amount

Amount Diff

Change %

Notes

Revenue Offset: Federal Grant Funds

$3,109,162

The FY 2022 school budget was created with the understanding that a number of positions would be funded through one-time ESSER grant money. The school committee voted for a budget of $71,574,118, however, maintaining many existing positions and programs required an overall budget of $74,683,280. The difference of $3,109,162 was to be made up through the use of ESSER III grant money that the school district was anticipating receiving during the 2021-2022 school year. The application of ESSER III funding did require a formal survey to be provided to district stakeholders, but the district also utilized the extensive feedback it received from the community during the creation of the FY 2022 budget to appropriately target where this grant money was to be utilized.

As part of the requirement of the ESSER III grant, the Braintree Public Schools sent a survey in September asking for parent/guardian feedback to help determine how the district should best utilize funds to address unfinished learning, ongoing COVID-19 recovery, and Federal Program grant funds.

• There was a 10% response rate

• To summarize responses for the two key questions:

When addressing the needs of students with disabilities resulting from the loss of services related to COVID-19, we recognize there are many possible supports. Of the four options listed below, please select the one that you would like to see Braintree Public Schools make a top priority.
(One answer could be selected)

• 76% Supports to help students make up for progress or skills they lost

• 10% Not applicable / Prefer not to answer

• 6% Training for teachers and staff

• 6% Direct supports to parents

• 2% Training for parents

The United States Department of Education (USED) is requiring two plans from all recipients of ESSER III funds:

2) A plan for the use of ESSER III funds based on broad stakeholder input, and addressing the following:

• The district’s prevention and mitigation strategies

• How the district will use its 20% reservation of ESSER III funds to address loss of instructional time with evidence-based interventions

• How the district will spend the remainder of its ESSER II funds for allowable expenditures and budget

• How the use of the ESSER III funds will respond to the academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of all students, especially those disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic

Braintree’s Plan:

• Materials purchased will differentiate and scaffold instruction for individual students and therefore will address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on all underserved student subgroups in the area of academic loss and achievement below grade level standards.

• NWEA Math Growth assessment will be administered to all students in grades 1-5. DIBELS 8 will be administered to all students in grades K-2. STAR Reading will be administered to all students in grades 3-5. Data from each of these assessment programs will be disaggregated by race, socio-economic status, special education status and English Learner status in order to identify students in need of extra support in order to close achievement gaps in comparison to their peers.

• We are expanding our inclusion model for middle school math and science for students with disabilities in order to address the disproportionate impact of low academic achievement for that population. Students will benefit from the acceleration approach being taken in the regular education math and science classrooms, where students are exposed to grade-level material with scaffolds provided to help meet the needs of individual learners.

• Elementary Math and Reading Specialists will receive professional development on a student-centered workshop structure pedagogy, designed to differentiate the learning for students while providing every student with access to rigorous grade-level material. Workshop structure is designed to meet the needs of each individual learner, including those learners who identify as minority racial groups, students from low-income families, students with disabilities, English learners, male and female students, migrant students, students experiencing homelessness and students in foster care.

• We will use a mental health screener in order to identify students in need of immediate, short-term, or long-term support related to mental health. The screener will be used for all students in order to ensure those students who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 are given the support they need.

• Will will teach with a workshop structure to ensure student-centered learning where grade-level material is scaffolded to the meet the needs of all learners. As a result, all students from every student subgroup will gain the instruction they need to show academic growth despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.