Richland 2 is expecting $4 million from the CARES Act. Here is where the money may go
Richland 2 school district is planning to spend roughly $4 million in CARES Act money on sanitation, nurse assistants, new computers and more.
Richland 2 does not yet have the money in hand, but has applied for the money and released a plan for how to spend it at a Tuesday school board meeting, said Richland 2 Chief Financial Officer Harry Miley.
Here is a breakdown of how Richland 2 wants to spend the money:
- $2,167,890 for computers and software
$1,069,660 to buy equipment and pay personnel to sanitize schools,
$342,000 for nine full-time equivalent nurse aids,
- $150,000 for two full-time equivalent “instructional coaches” to help teachers adapt to online learning,
$128,563 to boost services for private school students in the district (something required by federal policy),
$99,052 in remaining money has yet to be allocated for a specific purpose.
School districts were allocated money from the S.C. Department of Education based on the number of Title I disadvantaged students they have, Miley said.
For example, if a district has 3% of the state’s Title I students, the district would receive 3% of the CARES Act funding, Miley said.
“One of our greatest needs” is the funding for special cleaning needs and costs, Miley said.
For specialized cleaning services, the district plans to contract with SSC Services for Education, which said it can provide electrostatic cleaning, sanitizing in between classes and more.
The nurse aids will be necessary to help conduct contact tracing and take the burden off nurses.
“When we...get students in the building and we have to do contact tracing, it takes several hours to do contact tracing,” said Richland 2’s top nurse Dawn McAdams. “So nurses needed to be freed up.”
The money allocated to private schools based on the number of their Title I students is a controversial, federal policy that has drawn lawsuits in some states, but not South Carolina, said Superintendent Baron Davis.
“That money that’s allocated to private schools is a serious issue and it’s tied up in politics,” Davis said.
Since much of this money is one-time money, Richland 2 does not intend to keep these positions on after the federal CARES Act money is spent, Davis said.
Richland 2 will begin online-only classes Aug. 31 with the intention to phase-in face-to-face classes as coronavirus cases decline in Richland County.
As of Monday, Aug. 24, Richland County is still considered to have “High” coronavirus spread, per the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
In order to begin phasing in face to face classes, Richland County is supposed to have “medium” spread, which 17 counties in the state have done, according to DHEC.