Daleville City Schools awarded $1.8 million

Taking care of students is top priority at Daleville City Schools and working to reopen the schools safely post-pandemic remains a focus of attention.

That is part of why Daleville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Lisa Stamps said she is excited to announce that the system has received nearly $2 million in federal funds as part of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

United States Congress set aside approximately $13.2 billion of the $30.75 billion allotted to the Education Stabilization Fund through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security—CARES— Act for the ESSER Fund.

Designed to maximize in-person instructional time and address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, educators and families, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act 2021 signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020 provides an additional $54.3 billion for the ESSER II Fund.

Daleville City Schools has been awarded $1,837,818 of ESSER II funds, Stamps told those attending the Daleville Board of Education meeting June 30. The system is expecting to receive more than $4 million soon from ESSER III.

“We sat down as an administrative team and looked at our needs, wants and wishes,” Stamps told the board. “These ESSER funds will be used for the next two years and are used to implement prevention and mitigation of coronavirus as we open schools safely.

“The funds are used to respond to the academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of students,” she added. “The state department has told us the funds should be focused to prevent, prepare for and respond to coronavirus.”

Stamps said the funding will be used for high quality instructional materials, high quality professional development, unfinished learning or learning loss and facilities.

Some $30,000 will go towards instructional materials, to include reading and math textbooks/workbooks, materials and manipulatives and teacher stipends for summer training, Stamps said.

Some $10,000 will go towards professional development, to include reading and math teacher training for the next two school years.

The $1,242,000 allocated for learning loss—also called unfinished learning—includes the largest portion of the budget, Stamps said. It includes the iReady progress monitoring tool, social and emotional curriculum.

Personnel will be added, to include an additional elementary teacher at Windham Elementary School to reduce class size and contracts for occupational therapy, physical therapy, a speech language pathologist and an American Sign Language interpreter.

After-school tutoring for all three schools and summer school for all three schools are being conducted in an effort to combat learning loss, Stamps said, adding that a math interventionist/coach and behavior interventionist at WES, a special education teacher at Daleville High School, a special education teacher at Daleville Middle School and a reading interventionist/teacher and mental health coordinator at both schools will be added. “Many of these positions have been paid out of local funds so this frees that money up,” Stamps said.

As part of the $555,818 facilities funding budgeted, 36-year-old HVAC units at Windham Elementary School will be replaced with 14 Trane HVAC units and energy efficient windows will be installed.

Air purifiers for common areas in all three schools, PPE and custodial supplies and adding two new custodians to assist the two current custodians are also included in the facilities budget.

Other budgeted items include furniture for the new DMS dining hall, two serving lines for the dining hall and furniture for the DMS library including chairs, tables and shelves.

“We are very very happy,” Stamps added with a smile. “We strategically planned to spend this money for our biggest needs.”