LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The numbers are sobering. National math and reading scores have hit decades-low results following the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020. Now, money earmarked for COVID-related issues is being used to get our children back on track.
Lima Rotary hearing from the Allen County Educational Service Center about grant dollars received from the state to assist students in a wide variety of areas. 75 million in COVID dollars were available statewide and Allen County received 2.1 million of that. The next step was determining how to distribute those dollars to Allen County schools. The Educational Service Center's superintendent says they reached out to the schools to find out their most pressing needs.
"Before we even got the $2.1 million dollars, we surveyed all the schools to see what kind of services they needed to help students extend and recover from the COVID," says Craig Kupferberg, superintendent of Allen County Educational Service Center. "So, we put that together for the State of Ohio, they approved us for $2.1 million and then what we did is ask for mini-grants in those area that they were talking about. Which is really in literacy with reading and mathematics."
Besides literacy and math, the mini-grants are being used for social and emotional learning, STEM programming, and to help with attendance. The grant dollars will last for 2 years and the hope is the programs that have been implemented will continue after that.
