September Board of Ed: budget

Bell: where we stand in September
Department works on both federal and state funding
different cycles for federal and state
actively implementing close to $7B that makes up overall allocation
supplemental budget:
$100M grant program for HVAC; support districts with higher concentrations of low income students, higher impacts of COVID, higher numbers of facilities in need of program
supplemental to other funding
second year of funding to support special education schools and programs
meet the needs our schools effectively the buyers of

ESSER I: 99% claim (ends in 10 days!)

ESSER II: 53% claim rate

ESSER III: 17% claim "not surprising...we've encouraged districts to use their older funding first"

time to start working on FY24

West: national headlines about schools not spending ESSER funding
as someone steeped in this, is your reaction that these people don't know what they're talking about?
Bell: here in Massachusetts, at the end of the day, federal funding is a minority position
school districts, municipalities have an array of funding available
"somewhat of an inaccurate headline, to be honest with you"
"I don't chuckle, but I don't think it's a fair headline."
"To me, districts are doing what they should be doing...it seems to me they're on track"
"we have no reason to believe districts aren't spending it well"

Peyser scrambles wildly to undercut this argument

asks when Legislatures might be expected to act on supplementals: this isn't Bell's job, and it's an unfair question to ask him
some of that funding is past 6/30
provision
no idea what Matt Hills just said about both things could be true, as he wasn't using his mic

Riley: wish across the country for an extension in use of funding "for five year plan"
(Actually, it's due to pandemic supply lines and hiring complications for those paying attention)
hearing that there is no willingness to do this (please note: this is contrary to what was said last week in the federal update at ASBO, where it was expected, it was just a question of when), which we have communicated to districts

Canavan looking for best practices

minutes approved