Crisis averted? Some Fort Worth ISD programs could outlast the money that built them
The Fort Worth Independent School District will be able to keep many of the programs it funded using federal pandemic relief dollars once that funding ends, a district official told the school board Tuesday.
Districts nationwide are facing a looming deadline to spend their relief allocations or forfeit any money that remains unspent. That leaves school leaders scrambling to figure out how to continue to pay for successful programs they created or expanded using that money.
Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, Fort Worth ISD’s chief financial officer, told the district’s school board Tuesday that the district plans to use other federal money to partially offset the loss of the pandemic relief money, minimizing cuts to staff and programs. Among other things, the district receives federal Title I money that’s designated to support schools that serve large concentrations of low-income students.
Fort Worth ISD received $261.64 million in federal money through the third round of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief, or ESSER, program. Money distributed through that program was intended to help states and school districts reopen campuses safely after COVID shutdowns and help students make up ground they lost academically during the pandemic.
The district used a large share of its pandemic relief money on one-time purchases like new instructional materials. The district also created a new Saturday learning program, expanded its summer school offerings, and hired new staffers called family engagement specialists to work with chronically absent students and their parents to get kids back in school consistently.
The district’s attendance rate has steadily improved over the past year, Arrieta-Candelaria said, although it still lags behind pre-pandemic norms. District officials have attributed that improvement at least in part to the hiring of the family engagement specialists.
Arrieta-Candelaria gave no specific information on which programs the district would be able to keep at Tuesday’s meeting. District officials will bring a complete budget proposal to the board later this summer.
