County Covid Money Defined by both County Clerk and County Schools

With several million dollars being funneled into Calhoun County Schools and Government through Covid Funding, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Cares Act money, the question was on the mind of many as to how our local officials were distributing that amount of funding. Ridgeview News reached out to Jean Simers, Calhoun County Clerk and Kelli Whytsell, Superintendent of Schools for an accounting of where that massive amount of money went and both responded with their reports.

While the money was broken down into categories of spending, the schools accounting was laid out by department, not actual itemizations.

Why it matters: Because, quite frankly, that’s a chunk of change to come into a County the size of Calhoun, where citizens are struggling themselves to connect the dots of income and expenses. We need transparency that our county is using that amount of funding to the best interest of it’s citizens. There’s also a clock ticking on that funding with expiration dates for spending, or they lose it.

There’s no doubt with the current financial climate in Calhoun, those funds prevented a few storms from brewing by providing much need financial help.

The County Government received $1,380,840.00 and have made $8,711.36 in interest on that funding for a total of $1,389,551.36.

The break down of expenditures were written in four checks:

Check #1 — $46,532.50 to City Chevrolet for the Partial Cost of a Food Truck for Senior Citizens
Check #2 — $30,200.00 to Arnoldsburg Park (West Fork Community Action)
Check #3 — $18,000.00 to Heartwood
Check #4 — $3,444.30 to the Upper West Fork Cap

There is a current balance of $1,291,374.56 as of July 22, 2022. The County Commission has an obligation $1.2M for Broadband along with projects for the Mt. Zion PSD, Calhoun County Park and Mt. Zion Park which have yet to be paid out.

The county government received CARES act monies that was for reimbursement of salaries for deputy sheriff, EMS and E911.

The $100,000.00 COVID grant was spent as follows:
Check 1010 – Tri State $775,56 Cleaning Supplies
Check 1011 – Unifirst – $540.00 Supplies, Gloves, etc.
Check 1012 – Emma Howell $345.63 Sanitizing Courtrooms
Check 1013 – Fifth Third Bank – $1,029.63 – 5 Sanitizing Lamps and 6 Nano Spray Guns
Check 1014 – Fifth Third Bank – $257.13 – 6 Gallons of Solutions for Atomizers
Check 1014 – General Fund – $22,030.34 – Reimbursement for Deputy Sheriff Salary
Check 1015 – EMS – $75,021.71 – Reimbursement for Salaries

The Calhoun County School report is a bit more complex in its expenditures due to the amount of money received and had considerable planning in the process. Meetings were held on May 26, 2021 with all staff in Calhoun County as part of the planning with goals being to collect the following:

School/County data
Needs Assessment
Technology reports
Student Services data
Data that was reviewed
School and County Strategic Plans
Attendance records student/staff
Semester and end of the year grades, D/F/I
State assessment scores GSA
Input from all stakeholders

Through the information gathering in those meetings, their determination was :

Addressing Learning Loss
Employment of an additional special education teacher at the elementary schools
Employment of an additional middle school math teacher.
Maintain employment of multi-subject teachers in the elementary schools to keep class sizes as small as possible.
Employment of additional aides in the following classes, small kindergarten class, all first-grade classes, all fifth-grade classes, resource special education classrooms. For a total of 11 additional aides.
Employment of a elementary assistant principal to focus on student data, SAT/504/IEP, social-emotional needs of students and implementation of grant supported ideas.
Math coach to work with middle/high school.

When the funding was received the expenditures were reported as the following:

Fiscal Year 2020 – Total Allocation of Funding ESSERF: $367,332.70

Budgeted Amount: $352,358.51 (*Possibly $1.00 off in Shari Math)
Indirect Cost Rate: 4.25%
Max Indirect cost based on budgeted amount: $14,975.19 *
Max Indirect cost based on total allocation: 14,975.19 *

*Don’t take that as fact – See ** Below

Function:

Instruction K-12: $64,874.82
Guidance – General : $7,332.70
Instruction Related Technology/Network Support: $29,124.20
Operation of Buildings: $238,428.79
Safety: $12,598.00
Indirect Cost: $14,974.19 (** $1 less than the aforementioned amount – *In Shari math)

Total/Adjusted Allocation $367,332.70

Balance Remaining: $0.00