Northern Lehigh School District has plans to utilize its ESSER grants.

Dr. Tania Stoker reviewed with the school board last week some of the items that the district plans to spend its federal ESSER I, ESSER II, and ESSER III grants on.

“In response to the pandemic, school districts received state and federal aid in order to have funding to navigate these unique times in education,” Stoker said. “The decisions of how we spend these moneys have not been made in isolation; instead we have discussions with multiple groups and stakeholders, as is required for receiving the funding.”

Director Donna Kulp asked that out of the dollars that were listed, how much was on this particular agenda would be added to those numbers.

“I can tell you that every agenda item that we do have listed does say it’s coming out of ESSER funding,” Stoker said.

Kulp asked how much the district would have left in the ESSER grants after the approvals, to which Stoker noted that the numbers fluctuate almost on a daily basis.

Director Mathias Green also questioned if there was a number as to how much was encumbered, and how much would be left.

Director Gale Husack said noticing some of the items are one-time items, but others are extenuating based on what could happen in the future, what does that look like for the district’s budgets down the line.

Superintendent Matthew J. Link noted, “Every year, whether there’s ESSER funds or not, we evaluate every position through attrition, through the need for new positions, through class size. ”

Regardless, Kulp said she wasn’t comfortable approving the items.

“I’m uncomfortable approving any ESSER fund money, not knowing how much we have left in the funds,” Kulp said. “I’d rather have more data to make an informed decision.”

Stoker told Kulp the district still had $4.2 million left in the three ESSER grants, as it has only spent $500,000.

But Kulp noted they were going to be expending some of that money right now.

Green concurred, and said he had to argue that point.

“We don’t have $4.2 million left to spend,” Green said. “And I have the same concern that you do, Donna, how much is really left,” he said. “I know it’s not anywhere close to $4.2 million.”

Stoker said all of the projected costs that were discussed were all included in that $4.2 million.

“We haven’t overspent that money up through September of 2024.”

Kulp said she understood, but she was trying to “see if we’re spending money in the right places, and see what we have left, so that’s a concern.”

Sherri Molitoris, co-director, Business Affairs & Human Resources, agreed with Stoker that it is a revolving door.

“At this point in time, in order to open up the grant, in order to be approved for the grant, in order for the grant to be opened up so that we can start spending it and then also get money back is we needed to put items into that in order for that to happen,” Molitoris said. “That’s kind of where we are right now with the whole projection of what’s happening.”

Molitoris said the district was still looking at about $800,000 not spent, “that is if everything gets bought as is and across the board.”

“There’s still hundreds of thousands of dollars left in there,” she said. “We just had to give a list of items that we wanted and we thought we were going to need to the grant system so that we could open the grant.

Green added, “$800,000 is a lot more realistic number in my mind than the $4.2 million,” Green said. “And I can work with that.”