Manatee School District receives $10 million from CARES Act. It needs every penny
After spending millions of dollars to fight COVID-19, the School District of Manatee County has secured millions more to help weather the pandemic.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, passed Congress with bipartisan support before President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on March 27. It divided trillions of dollars between different “funds” for K-12 schools, colleges, businesses and other areas impacted by COVID-19.
Manatee County schools will benefit from more than $10 million in the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER, which was created under the CARES Act. Manatee’s application was recently approved and the school board voted to accept the money last week.
Manatee now has access to $10,060,283 in reimbursements for any approved purchases made through September 2022. That pot is shared between traditional campuses and charter schools, while the share for private schools was in limbo, said Tim Bargeron, the associate superintendent of finance.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued a rule in July, changing an existing formula and increasing the share that private schools would receive from the CARES Act. Several states filed a lawsuit and secured a preliminary injunction against the rule last week.
Bargeron said the ongoing lawsuit created some uncertainty about private schools’ share of the money. In the meantime, he cited a breakdown from the district’s original application, which split the money three ways:
- Traditional schools — $8,448,000.
- Charter schools — $1,334,000.
- Private schools — $278,000.
The district already spent $1.945 million on COVID-19 preparations and it had another $738,000 in outstanding orders, Bargeron said. Between the completed and pending orders, Manatee has spent nearly $2.7 million on cleaning supplies, education technology and other needs during the pandemic.
Approximately $570,000 will soon be offset by the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, or GEER, another pot of money created by the CARES Act. Bargeron said a portion of that money will go to charter schools, and while it certainly helped, Manatee spent far more in recent months.
“We’re actually spending more on our cleaning and safety than any of the grant funds have provided for us,” Bargeron said.
The CARES Act money could help to soften the blow in Manatee County. However, with a decrease in tax revenue during the pandemic, school districts throughout Florida needed the money to weather impending budget cuts. Manatee planned to set aside a majority of the money for future use, Bargeron said.
“I would imagine it’s all going to be utilized in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2021,” he continued.
Cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment, or PPE, will remain a costly priority throughout the pandemic, said Pat Barber, longtime president of the Manatee Education Association.
As head of the local teachers’ union, Barber often received questions about access to disinfectant wipes and other supplies before the start of school. While the district warehouse is now well stocked, the reserves were not unlimited, she said.
“I think it’s going to be a constant thing because those are all consumable,” Barber said.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 2:23 PM.