ESSER Funds Help Culbertson Benefit Local Students

The Culbertson School District has worked to make its facility cleaner and updated for its students by utilizing federal ESSER funds.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief act provides funding to address the impact of COVID-19 on elementary and secondary schools.

“The board stressed three areas of concern: classroom support, technology and facilities,” Culbertson’s district clerk Lora Finnicum said.

During the ESSER II portion, Culbertson received $294,425 in federal funded.

Projects included $183,234 for boiler replacement. The work featured replacement of the 40-plus year old boiler and re-furbishing the coal boiler to a propane boiler.

The school board also decided to spend $91,774.21 for paying three aides to tutor in order to address learning loss and spend $2,481 for special needs specialists to address learning loss for special needs students.

In addition, $16,935.79 was earmarked for on-line software to cover credit recovery and on-line courses to address learning loss.

Culbertson was granted $650,305 in ESSER III funding. Trustees voted to utilize $420,796.06 for instructional improvements including an additional junior high teacher, double classroom teachers in grades kindergarten, second, third, fourth and fifth to have a reduced student- teacher ratio. Window replacement in elementary classrooms cost $124,960. Network equipment and cabling to improve speed and performance costs $14,000. On-line softball curriculum to improve teacher resources costs $18,070.

Other projects included $5,478.95 for classroom furniture, $5,743 for sanitizing and cleaning equipment and $61,256.99 for Chromebooks, Smartboards and tech supplies.