Montana schools could get a smaller, late round of COVID stimulus funding
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BILLINGS, Mont. (Billings Gazette) — Schools could be in line for an additional slice of COVID-19 stimulus money before the year is out.
Outgoing Gov. Steve Bullock’s office sent a short survey in late October to schools that already got a share of $75 million from the Governor’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, asking if they intended to spend the money they already received by the end-of-December deadline and if they could use more.
An announcement about further funding is expected next week, a Bullock spokeswoman said.
The money wouldn’t really be from a new pot. Of the $10 million set aside for transportation budgets, about half went unspent and could be parceled out to schools for general COVID-19 expenses. Officials also wanted to know if schools would have any other unspent money they planned to return to the state, so that too could be doled out to schools that say they need it.
Billings Public Schools CFO Craig Van Nice brought up the survey during a Nov. 5 district committee meeting. In an interview Thursday, he said the schools did ask for more money.
“We could make a case for another million dollars to be spent prior to the end of December,” he said.
The district had concerns earlier this school year about staying in line with rules for spending the money and potentially not using the full $7.3 million the district got. Those issues have since been ironed out with consultation from Bullock’s office, the Office of Public Instruction, and district auditors, Van Nice said.
“I feel like we’re all on the same page,” he said.
Some school leaders have raised concerns about ongoing pandemic-related costs that will extend beyond the December spending deadline. Schools also got a round of funding from the CARES Act that has a longer deadline to spend, and some, like Billings, have tried to set that money aside and spend the relief fund money first.
Additional federal COVID-19 relief for schools is likely to be a major negotiation point in any forthcoming stimulus package. President-elect Joe Biden has favored more support for schools, but congressional Republicans and Democrats have split on whether and how that should happen.
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