After putting out a draft plan and taking in feedback from the community, the schools are currently pondering a final plan for approximately $1.1 million in grants from the federal government meant to address a wide variety of issues stemming from the pandemic.

Authorized by the American Rescue Plan in March, the monies are meant to be spent over the next two years according to Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman, and grants are actually amenable—meaning that even the final plan the schools will be submitting can be tweaked going forward.

Freeman emphasized the money, while significant, is not proportionally a huge chunk of Guilford’s expenses—only about two percent of an annual budget for the school. Other districts have received close to 40 percent of an annual budget, with the grant being distributed based on a by-need formula, according to Freeman.

The preliminary plan divided the grant into three categories: Direct Student Support (with $690,000 allocated for those programs), Staff Training/Learning (funded with $309,000), and Software/Equipment ($123,000).

Among the services and purchases being made with the grant are five new full-time positions, a special collaborative academy program for students that will work with the town’s Parks & Recreation Department, and a continuation of several professional development courses for teachers that were launched this year.

One positive development in the district that came even before accounting for these new grants was the news that an anticipated deficit for the 2020-’21 fiscal year had been fully accounted for. Freeman had initially projected back in the spring that the district might be as much as $300,000 over budget, but announced last week the schools will not need a special appropriation to cover losses and actually expect to come in under budget.

Board of Education Chair Katie Ballestraci credited district Business Manager Linda Trudeau and other staff for navigating the particularly challenging financial year and finding other grants and offsets for COVID expenses.

As the district considers the new funds, Freeman added that there remained significant restrictions on what the monies could be spent on, with the intention that they directly address COVID-related issues.

He also emphasized that from a big-picture perspective, Guilford is planning on “accelerating out of this pandemic rather than remediating out of this pandemic,” though some of the student-focused programs do aim to address at least in part things like learning loss through interventions.

The five new positions include two new social workers and two paraprofessionals, as well as an English language learner or ELL position—a teacher that works with students whose first language is not English. This will be the first time Guilford has employed an ELL teacher, according to Freeman.

All these positions are temporary, Freeman promised, and the district will make clear and in any interviews or advertisements that they are funded by a grant that will be expiring. But he added that often staff hired with grant money can move into a budget-funded position that opens due to a retirement or departure of another staff member.

Another big investment proposed is the continuation of a summer enrichment program, which has three times the expressed student interest as compared to last year, according to Freeman. He described it as a hybrid part-time summer school that melds with summer camp-style activities hosted by Parks & Recreation.

A similar program will run during the school year after school, and the district will invest in more “contact time” during school hours also, targeting both social-emotional issues as well as academic support for students.

For teachers, many of the programs are a continuation of opportunities previously offered by the district, according to Freeman, but also include new summer “individualized and interest-based” professional development seminars focused on things like mindfulness or technology.

A total of $90,000 is being dedicated to responding to “schooling loss,” though Freeman again emphasized that the district wants to focus on growing and not remediating post-pandemic.

The last $123,000 will go to software licenses including the Zoom videoconference platform, along with outdoor furniture and a potential expansion of the cafeteria at Guilford High School.