St. Joseph CCSD #169 moved money around on Monday in order to begin paying back a $750,000 working cash bond that was issued in 2019 to pay for new roofing and repavement of the district’s parking lots.
The repayment will take three years to complete, but because the district bought the bonds, it will get the interest which should be about $50,000.
Money was also moved on Monday because the district’s education fund is tight at this time. The $300,000 from working cash and $80,000 from transportation, which was a reimbursement from a grant program for preschool transportation, will help the education fund that is hurting due to COVID-19 expenses.
Superintendent Todd Pence said that the $50,081 federal CARES money will not be enough to cover the district’s expenses as it prepares for students to either return to school or begin in an e-learning environment.
The board approved spending the CARES money on 144 new Chromebooks, 60 webcams and microphones, 20 non-touch thermometers, four electrostatic sanitation sprayers — two for each school; buses will be sprayed with the one the district already has — online student registration and two guided reading kits that third-grade teachers will use to catch the second-grade students up from time missed at the end of the 2020 school year.
CARES funding was based on the percentage of low-income students in each school district. St. Joseph CCSD #169’s student population is 18-percent, according to the Illinois Report Card. With 805 students, St. Joseph’s CARES money equals out to $63.11 per student.
St. Joseph-Ogden High School has the lowest low-income student population in Champaign County, so it received $12,296 or $26.478 per student.
Prairieview-Ogden received $22,231 or $83.81 per student and Heritage received $98,818 or $222.62 per student. The Ludlow School District received the highest amount of money per student at $644.02. Ludlow has an enrollment of 68 students and received $43,549.
For perspective, Champaign CUSD #4 received $2,684,189 for its 9,840 students. That is $272.77 per student whereas Urbana SD 116 received $344.16 per student, a total of $1,448,831.
Pence said that the costs associated with COVID-19 have nothing to do whether a student is low-income or not; the district has to make accommodations for every student enrolled.
Future modifications for COVID-19 may have to come out of the district’s education or building funds. Like other school districts in Illinois, Pence and the school board are awaiting 2020-21 school year guidelines from ISBE before any final decisions are made.
Pence said that things like hand sanitizer, wipes, latex gloves, cleaning supplies and Chromebooks are already on back order, and costs are increasing. St. Joseph is in a buying co-op, though, so that should help keep costs down.
ISBE guidelines will include guidance about transportation, amount of students in one classroom at one time and how schools should approach lunch, among other issues. Pence said each of those items could produce additional costs for the district.
Once the guidelines come out later this week, Pence said that his team, which is already working on some what-ifs, will reach out, engaging parents and the community, as they take steps towards a new normal.
With all of the worry and stress associated with the pandemic, Pence said he definitely knows one thing:
“Our teachers have been outstanding through this whole thing,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier with what they have done to make this work.
“They’ve gone above and beyond and we are going to be in some type of boat next year. It’s a lot of change for them, too.”
