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Through three rounds of disbursements, Indian Prairie Unit District 204 received a total of $13.4 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding.
While that may seem like an immense amount of money, officials said it equates to an allotment of $497 per student in the state’s fourth-largest district. By comparison, the three larger districts — Chicago Public Schools, Elgin Area School District U-46 and Rockford 205 — received an average of $6,200 per student.
Because of the low allotment per student, District 204 officials said they needed to be mindful in spending the final $8.5 million of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding earmarked for fiscal years 2023 and 2024. The money will go toward everything from reducing elementary school class sizes to home-use books and supplies for students.
District 204 serves nearly 27,000 students in Aurora, Bolingbrook, Naperville and Plainfield.
In addition to the federal funding, the district also received $871,000 from a state reserve fund. Of the federal money, 20% must address learning loss, as must 71.4% of the state funding.
According to officials, District 204 spent $6.3 million of the funding to support learning loss. The money went toward after-school and summer learning, academic support staff, transportation and other initiatives.
“As a point of pride, we are well above that 20% that we’ve used to address learning loss,” said Louis Lee, the district’s deputy superintendent.
A big question going forward, Lee said, is how the district plans to continue programs and staff positions currently funded by the grant money. He said he’s confident three of the top priorities — a mental health coordinator, literacy and math coordinators, and the reduction in elementary school class sizes — will remain in place.
Those three areas account for about $2.6 million of the funding for the next two fiscal years.
“We’ve already been able to secure some confirmations in the budget process that we believe those top three will definitely remain,” Lee said.
Lee said there’s also a goal to maintain full-time nursing positions, which will cost $544,310 in federal funding over the next two years. But the continuation of books and supplies for home use in the summer — which will cost $1.5 million in 2023 and 2024 — may not happen.
“This will continue to be a challenge for us that we’ll continue to talk through the year about,” Lee said.
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