Covid-19 costs add up for PW-S schools

Covid-19 has cost the Port Washington-Saukville School District nearly $1 million — probably significantly more than that when all the bills are tallied — and the question now is how much of that will be covered by pandemic relief funds.

The district has already received $118,774 in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds and expects to receive an additional $580,365 as part of the second round of ESSER allocations, Director of Business Services Mel Nettesheim said.

More ESSER funding, part of the federal CARES Act, will become available, but it’s uncertain how much of it the district will receive. 

A second round of funding in the ESSER II allocation will be based on the number of days students were physically in schools, Nettesheim said. That means the district will likely receive less money than school systems that started the school year with full-time, in-person instruction, like several surrounding districts did.

The Port-Saukville School District began the school year in what it called a hybrid model. Middle and high school students attended classes two days a week and learned online from home three days a week. Elementary school students were in schools four days a week. 

The district resumed full-time, in-person instruction at the start of the second semester on Jan. 25.

“How much we’ll receive depends on how we have to calculate the number of days students were physically in school,” Nettesheim said.

There will also be an ESSER III allocation, but Nettesheim said it is too early to estimate how much the district will receive.

Meanwhile, pandemic-related costs continue to add up.

“It’s my estimate the (relief) funding will come up short of our costs,” Nettesheim said. 

The district’s most significant pandemic-related expenses have been in technology. It has spent an estimated $650,000 on such things as laptop computers for teachers, Chromebooks for students, software, classroom cameras, speakers and monitors needed for online teaching, Nettesheim said. 

Ventilation improvement intended to ensure the proper exchange of air and filtration in buildings has cost the district about $150,000.

Supplies — everything from cleaning equipment and products to masks — as well as additional custodial time have cost the district an estimated $111,000.

And although there are only two weeks of school left, Covid-19 spending will continue with the district’s summer school program in July. Three of the district’s largest buildings — Port Washington High School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Lincoln Elementary School — host summer classes and will need to be cleaned according to Covid-19 protocols.  

The district will also incur additional instructional costs as it helps students who struggled this school year catch up over the summer.

The district’s expenses will be significant, Nettesheim said, but that’s the cost of protecting the health of students and staff members and educating children during a pandemic.

“The Port Washington-Saukville School District takes pride in what we do for our students to make sure they’re safe and to make up for the learning lag,” Nettesheim said.