Fountain Hills Unified District

Fortunately, we were able to use funds from ESSER I and ESSER II to pay for things like masks, gloves, water bottle filling stations, and cleaning supplies. We have also been able to adjust our daily operations of school sites to implement and meet the CDC guidelines as demonstrated by our recently revised and uploaded 2021-2022 Safe Return to School Plan. Of note, other than a three-day period in January of 2022 of required remote learning due to COVID cases at McDowell Mountain Elementary School, we have maintained in-person learning at all of our sites throughout the 2021-2022 school year. A major component of our use of the ESSER III funds is to maintain the necessary high level of counseling support we observe needed by our students in order to be successful at school. By funding these services through ESSER III for FY22 and FY23, we are able to alleviate pressure on our regular M&O budget in order to retain high quality teachers and maintain relatively low class sizes, two key aspects required to continuously and safely operate schools for in-person learning. By using ESSER III funding for Backbone Communication's SchoolsPLP learning management system, we are able to provide an effective platform for students taking part in in-person instruction, hybrid, and virtual learning. It has been an effective tool for providing students who are sick and unable to attend school to keep pace with their in-person peers and consequently, it has allowed us to keep the doors open for in-person learning despite spikes in student absenteeism due to COVID or other illnesses. Similarly, using ESSER III funds to pay for the Panorama Student Success platform provides us with an effective tool for ensuring consistency of support for each and every student.