Governor Steve Bullock announced Wednesday, Nov. 25 that the state’s Coronavirus Relief Funds have been redistributed to provide approximately $13 million for K-12 schools to cover remaining expenses incurred due to COVID-19 through Dec. 30. This includes nearly $300,000 for Missoula County Public School high schools and more than $27,000 for area elementary schools.
“School administrators and educators are working diligently to provide educational opportunities for Montana’s students during challenging times – and we must do all we can to support them in sustaining safety measures in classrooms,” Bullock said. “While this additional funding will serve our schools with continued needs through the end of this year, our schools head into the New Year empty handed and Congress must come together to pass additional relief to support our students and teachers.”
In July, Governor Bullock directed $75 million from the state’s Coronavirus Relief Funds to Montana K-12 schools to assist with safely reopening schools and the resulting extra expenses incurred due to COVID-19. A total of $10 million was reserved to cover incremental transportation costs and $65 million was distributed based on the fiscal year 2021 budgeted annual number belonging (ANB) of each district.
In late October, the Governor’s Office sent a questionnaire to all school districts requesting information on funds utilized to determine unspent funds and if additional COVID-19 relief funding was needed. School districts that responded to the survey and had requests that could be accomplished by the Dec. 30 deadline were eligible for additional funding.
Area schools that received additional funding per ANB include: $296,788 for Missoula County Public Schools high schools; $14,061 for Seeley Lake Elementary School; $7,308 for Potomac Elementary School; $1,192 for Sunset Elementary School and $2,542 for Swan Valley Elementary School.
This funding includes transportation reserves, unspent funding from districts and new Coronavirus Relief Funds. All funds distributed to schools must be used for COVID-19 related costs, such as for transportation, personal protective equipment, cleaning and disinfectant and incremental staffing. In addition to public K-12 schools, private schools and special education coops were also eligible to request additional funding.
Technology funding is also being provided to schools that indicated need to acquire computers and digital devices. Sunset School received an additional $2,200 for technology.
For a full list of public, private and coop schools receiving additional funding view https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/k-12funding_public_schools.pdf
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