Officials at several Pima County school districts say they are now in better standing to secure programs and resources for their students after the state recently announced the first round of allocations of a new COVID-19 relief fund.
The Education Plus-Up grant — a $163 million program funded through the American Rescue Plan Act — distributed about $17 million to local school districts that had received a lower-than-average amount of money through a previous COVID-19 relief program known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund.
Some of the local school districts benefiting from the most recent allocations include Vail, Sahuarita, Tanque Verde and Marana.
“The Vail School District was so low in our ESSER allocations that we were granted quite a bit of funding in the Plus-Up grant to help make up for that,” said Darcy Mentone, the communications director for Vail Unified.
The ESSER funding, which was distributed to districts in three separate allocations, was largely based on each district’s student population that qualified for Title I, the federal funding program to districts that have a large number of low-income students.
That meant that Catalina Foothills, Vail, Marana, Sahuarita and Tanque Verde received low amounts of ESSER funding compared to other school districts in the county.
In August, Gov. Doug Ducey announced that the Education Plus-Up would close the gaps in ESSER funds by making up the difference to bring each school district up to $1,800 per pupil.
However, in an attempt to discourage districts from imposing mask requirements, Ducey added that only school districts “following all state laws,” including no mask mandates for students and teachers, would be eligible for the first round of the Plus-Up funding.
According to a list of Plus-Up allocations provided by Ducey’s office, Vail was allocated about $12.4 million and Sahuarita was given about $1.7 million. Neither school district imposed a mask mandate.
Superintendent Manuel Valenzuela of Sahuarita Unified said the additional funding would help protect what administrators had initially feared was at risk given the district’s low budget.
“When we lost that kind of budget capacity, there was a very big risk that we would lose what I believe are our greatest assets: the people and our programs,” Valenzuela said. “I think these funds help us accomplish the mission that we targeted, which is to help us protect the people and programs so that we could go forward with prosperity.”
Tanque Verde, another district that did not impose a mask mandate, was also not included in the list provided by the state, but Superintendent Scott Hagerman said the district was allocated just over $2 million.
Tanque Verde had been the lowest-funded district by ESSER in Pima County, with less than $800 per pupil by the end of the third allocation, according to information provided by the district.
“Big picture, it means that we’re going to get language arts curriculum that we haven’t had in over 20 years; we’re going to have 1:1 computers that are new enough that we can run everything we need for kids; and then we’re looking at some updates for classrooms, like ventilation,” Hagerman said about how the district would invest the Plus-Up money.
Marana Unified, a district that initially imposed a mask mandate and then let it expire in late September, was not included in the list provided by the state. However, the district’s director of public relations said it was in line to receive an allocation.
“We were informed that we will be awarded it and are waiting for final contacts,” spokeswoman Alli Benjamin said in an email. “Our amount is right around $1 million.”
A Maricopa Superior Court Judge ruled in late September that Ducey’s state law barring schools from imposing mask mandates was unconstitutional. Still, that law seemed to affect at least one school district in Pima County.
Administrators at Catalina Foothills, the second-lowest funded district through ESSER in Pima County, declined the Star’s request for an interview. But Julie Farbarik, the district’s community relations director, confirmed that the district’s application for the Education Plus-Up funding had been denied.
She said the Governor’s Office said the district did not meet the eligibility requirements for the grant because of its mask mandate.
The Governor’s Office did not provide an updated, completed list of the first round of Education Plus-Up allocations throughout Arizona. It was unclear if other school districts in the county were also in line for receiving money from the first cycle distributions.
