The Iowa Department of Education recently announced its second round of COVID-19 relief funding to k-12 public schools.

Greene County School District received $796,149 and Superintendent Tim Christensen says these funds help to provide the district’s response to the virus, such as purchasing cleaning supplies, mitigation efforts like technology and connectivity and preparing for future issues like improving air quality. He points out they have not determined what they will use these new funds for, but  summer school will be a resource that will be used. Christensen adds, the district received $185,000 from the first round of funding.

Paton-Churdan School District received $109,481. Superintendent Kreg Lensch says they also haven’t decided how to utilize these new funds. However, he believes these funds could be used as an opportunity to make up the achievement gap that was created due to the loss of instructional time because of COVID-19. He says the district received $27,000 from the first round of funding, which was used to purchase additional cleaning and sanitation supplies, as well as helped the cost of adding another full-time nurse for the district.

The new round of federal funding that the Iowa Department of Education received was through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act that was signed into law on December 27th.