Wright explains Esser Fund spending at school board meeting

At the Sauk Prairie School District meeting on May 13th, Superintendent Jeff Wright explained to the board how Esser Funds have been spent by the district. Noting that there is news across the country about school districts facing a “fiscal cliff” because they created new programs and hired staff with Esser Funds, only to find that money drying up now. Wright said the Sauk Prairie School District won’t face such problems. Wright outlined how the $3.7 million received in three batches over the past few years was spent. 58 percent was spent on air handling, 25 percent spent on staff hired to address learning losses and such from the pandemic, 8 percent spent on technology, 6 percent on instructional resources, and one half of one percent was spent administratively to disperse the funds. Wright noted that the teachers hired did not include any whose positions had to be eliminate due to the end of the funding. At an earlier meeting Wright announced the district will be getting another Mandarin teacher next year. Unfortunately, it won’t be current exchange teacher Lo Yu-Ting, but a new one.