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Use of Funds

Colorado ESSER Report: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund

Fremont school district uses ESSER funds to fix a sick building

The Fremont School District Re-2 had a sick building. A transfusion of ESSER funds cured it.

Working to keep the schools open during the pandemic, it became increasingly clear that the district’s oldest school building, Fremont Elementary, built in 1967, was not the healthiest place.

Districts communicate about their ESSER funds with help from two nonprofits

Adam Hartman, superintendent of the Cañon City School District, wanted to provide financial transparency so everyone in his small community could find out how the district was spending the $331,335 it received in federal pandemic Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding.  

ESSER III funding helps Center open child care for staff

Child care was already a problem for the teachers and staff in Center Consolidated School District that was made worse when the pandemic hit, but fortunately, the school district found a solution with the aid of ESSER funding.

Money from the ESSER Rural Program Development helps West Grand CTE program

A professional-grade espresso machine and an ice cream maker may not seem like educational tools, but with a $3,000 ESSER Rural Program Development grant, the West Grand School District has turned them into teaching machines.

West Grand’s money used the funding to bolster its Career and Technical Education classes, which were disrupted during the pandemic. Remote learning was no substitute for the hands-on learning the program provides.

Mapleton uses ESSER funds for transformative leadership program

One goal for ESSER was to help students get up to speed and improve learning once schools reopened. The partnership with UVA, Crawford said, gave teachers strategies to help students catch up.

“It's figuring out which kids are behind and why. Learning data planning for interventions,” he said

Edison School District uses ESSER funds to repurpose school bus

Students in Edison School District No. 54 are learning industrial arts skills to repurpose an old school bus into a habitable home using ESSER funds that were available to rural school districts for strengthening student engagement.

The tiny 112-student school district in Yoder was one of 47 Colorado rural school districts that applied for money from the $141,000 Rural Program Development grant.

A detailed look at the Donors Choose campaign

A high school teacher in Arvada replaced his 40-year-old generator, enabling students to deep-learn the concepts of electricity.

A Denver K-3 teacher received hands-on materials so his students could conduct magnetic field experiments.

Thornton high-schoolers now have phospholipid and membrane transport kits so they can study how cells organize.

Second round of DonorsChoose funding goes quickly

More than 9,800 teachers had their projects approved in the second round of funding of the DonorsChoose campaign that only lasted three days. 

On Thursday, Sept. 21, Gov. Jared Polis announced his office would contribute $6.7 million from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief fund to the DonorsChoose program, which provided $1,000 to teachers for classroom supplies and resources to improve students’ learning experiences. The Colorado Department of Education contributed an additional $440,000 to the second round of funding.

Gov. Polis provides more funding for DonorsChoose

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis today announced additional funding for Colorado teachers to access the DonorsChoose Program funding. This opportunity was created by the Governor’s allocation of $6.7 million from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to the DonorsChoose program which provides $1,000 to teachers for classroom supplies and resources to improve students’ learning experiences.

Initiative that used ESSER funds for classroom supplies a rousing success

Nearly 13,000 Colorado teachers applied for and received more than $11 million in classroom supplies in an initiative that used ESSER II funding to help pre-K through 12th grade public school educators address COVID-19 learning loss.

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