TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — More than $881 million dollars has been allocated for schools across the state, with nearly $800 million dollars going towards public schools. Locally, administrators are working out what to do with their apportionment.
CARES 2.0 aims to address learning loss, educator support, sustainable innovation and updates to technology and infrastructure.
An estimated $13 million dollars from this fund are expected by the Vigo County School Corporation. Bill Riley, communications director, said Wednesday VCSC hasn’t yet decided how it will use the funding.
“We need to plan for how we are going to use this money, we don’t have that plan yet. We found out, just like you, we’d be receiving this sum of money. It is a large sum of money. We want to use it appropriately,” Riley said.
Money is distributed amongst schools based on their Title One funding, which assists schools with low income students.
Nearly 70 miles away, the Eastern Greene School District are projected to get over $700 thousand.
“We want to invest in more smartboards across the schools,” Eastern Greene Schools Superintendent Trent Provo said. “I don’t think we are through with being virtual yet, so I want to make sure we have the tools there to help our students and teachers.”
Provo added that said another possible investment could be in Eastern Greene’s summer school program or other methods to help students who have had difficulty readjusting to in-person learning.
“I think that’s just important, virtual learning isn’t quite as good as face to face. We need to be able to mitigate any of that learning lag for those students who need that extra help,” Provo said.
Final amounts each school will receive have not been finalized. Schools must first submit a budget showing how the money will be used within limited expenses allowed by the state.
