More than $1.7 billion in federal funding has been allocated to the State of Connecticut for education through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act 2021. The funds have been made available to offset the unexpected and un-budgeted expenses incurred from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funding came in three rounds, including the ESSER I, ESSER II, and ARP ESSER with each round having a specific focus.

“ESSER I created the opportunity to survive, ESSER II created the opportunity to thrive, and ARP ESSER is Connecticut’s opportunity to transform our schools,” stated the ARP Act 2021 document, which is available on the state’s website at portal.ct.gov. “School districts’ use of ESSER II funding was shaped by the [Connecticut State Department of Education] State-Level Priorities for education.”

North Haven Public Schools (NHPS) received $3,538,252 in funding through the ESSER grants. In addition, NHPS received $336,487 from the State of Connecticut through its Corona Relief Funds program.

“We are spending 61 percent of the $3.5 million received on services such as additional teachers, summer programming, and technology that directly impacts the students to assist with learning loss because of the pandemic, but also assists with learning acceleration with things such as new state-of-the-art computers for CAD, graphic design, photography, and video design classes for the future,” said Superintendent of Schools Patrick Stirk.

The summer programming, which is currently underway, has nearly 400 students participating. Summer programming includes areas such as a learning academy, skills academy, credit redemption for high school students, and an extended school year program.

Each section of grant funding can only be allocated to specific projects and one of those areas is health and safety. NHPS had originally budgeted approximately $380,000 to upgrade the fire alarms in each of the elementary schools. By using grant funding for this project, it freed up funding to complete other projects that had not previously in the budget.

“Because ESSER funds can be utilized to for health and safety projects, we can now do additional projects like a North Haven High School Library redesign—a project that is in its infancy stages,” said Stirk. “We can also complete the Green Acres preschool playground and upgrade technology infrastructure using capital funds that have now become available since the Fire Alarm Project is being funded by ESSER funding.”

2020/’21/’22/’23 Budget Spend using ESSER and Other Grants from COVID Funding

ESSER I CT Corona Relief ESSER II ESSER III Total

Supplies (PPE / Cleaning) 0 $85,207 $80,116 $24,123 $189,446

Software (Educational) $143,262 $0 $15,390 $0 $158,652

Equipment (Tents, PCs, Chromebooks,

Elementary Fire Alarm Upgrades $70,452 $78,782 $344,857 $518,000 $1,012,092

Salaries (Add’l Personnel) $0 $88,583 $507,146 $848,418 $1,444,147

Purchased Services—HVAC Upgrades,

Deep Cleaning, & SPED Services $0 $83,915 $0 $650,000 $733,915

Total Grant Funding $213,714 $336,487 $947,509 $2,040,541 $3,538,252