Dickson Co. Schools a 'Best for All' district, honored for relief fund use on academics
The Dickson County School District was honored Friday for planning and investing more than $20 million in federal relief funds distributed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dickson County was among 68 school districts honored including Cheatham County and Tennessee School for the Blind in the Middle Tennessee area.
Dickson County most recently had a $13 million plan for using the third round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funds. To qualify for the Best for All recognition program, a district spent an amount equal to 50 percent of its ESSER 3.0 award amount on proven, research-based strategies to raise student academic achievement and participate in the TN ALL Corps tutoring grant program to provide students with high dosage, low ratio tutoring opportunities.
“We are extremely honored to receive this prestigious recognition,” said Dr. Danny Weeks, Director of Schools. “Our staff and students have worked extremely hard and certainly deserve to be honored in this way.”
Weeks told students and teachers he was “proud” of the work being done in the classrooms.
Dickson County’s use of recent funds
Dr. Marry Collins, the school district’s federal projects director, headed up organizing the plan in the summer last year.
She said ESSER 3.0 plan includes multiple plans including a “safe return to instruction and continuity of services plan,” a community engagement checklist, needs assessment, as well as the plan for spending.
“We have elicited feedback from many groups, including teachers, commissioners, chamber members, special interest groups and parents,” Collins said.
Among the areas of focus in Dickson County included:
-Improving kindergarten readiness to “set kids on the right path to success from the beginning,” Collins said. She said 30 percent of kindergartners entered school in 2020 “below average” in skills “needed to be academically successful.”
-A plan for “gifted students” to receive extra materials and supplies. Science equipment as well as history and biology textbooks will be purchased with the funds, Collins said
-Maintenance and facility needs.
-Buy a school bus.
-Buy new Chromebook laptops as used laptops age out.
-Graduation coaches are now provided for high school students who “might meet with the students that are behind on their credits or are at risk for graduating on time,” Collins said.
-Learning loss coaches now provided.
-New position tutoring and mentoring position created to help new teachers. “Everyone in education knows that if we are going to lose a teacher, it’s most likely to happen in the first five years,” Collins said.
The school district also created a video to tout the Best for All achievement.
‘Best for All' districts, federal funds
Beginning in 2020, the U.S. Congress responded to the global COVID-19 health pandemic by passing several pieces of legislation, including education relief for states. Tennessee received over $4.5 billion for K-12 education to be spent between spring 2020 and fall 2024. Through three rounds of funding referred to as ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 funds, over $3.58 billion will flow directly to local school districts to decide how to spend.
“Best for All Districts are meeting this critical moment in time head on, building upon statewide momentum to focus their efforts on students-first work and outcomes,” said state Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn.
The department announced the Best for All recognition program in July of 2021, sharing financial, operational, celebratory, and resource benefits awarded to Tennessee school districts that planned to spend historic amounts of federal COVID-19 relief and stimulus funding directly on student achievement and improving academic outcomes.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dickson Schools a Best for All district for relief funds use
