During a recent city council meeting, a citizen said she was concerned that almost $12 million dollars in federal relief funds to the local city school district could be “missing.”
But school officials provided The Herald with a detailed log of where the funds went, adding that there are still remaining funds available.
Cynthia Walker appeared before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to discuss a topic she said she first brought to the attention of the previous city administration. That topic was pandemic relief funding, including the American Rescue Plan, to the Yazoo City Municipal School District.
“Before you took these positions, I was concerned, screaming throughout our community, that money came in through our school district,” Walker said. “Millions of dollars came to us. When I asked for the American Rescue Plan, which was almost $12 million dollars, the school never provided me with that information. They never could get that information. I am asking this board for one of you to make it important that we ask the school district to account for the $11.6 million dollars.”
The Herald emailed Superintendent Dr. Earl Watkins, who provided a detailed breakdown of the federal funding.
“The Yazoo City Municipal School District was allocated $12,159,432 in ARP ESSER funds,” Watkins said. “To date, the district has expended $11,259,044.56 of those funds.”
Watkins said those funds were spent in:
• Educational Programs (After-school and Summer School): $251,818.98
• School Nurse Program: $280,056.17
• Professional Services (High dosage tutoring/teacher coaching): $2,393,367.98
Computer Equipment for the schools: $768,560.89
Classroom supplies/Copier: $26,763.00
Construction Projects: $7,342,946.91
Professional Development: $37,707.08
Indirect Costs: $157,823.55
Watkins said $900,387.44 of the funds remain to be expended.
During the city council meeting, Mayor David Starling also said the funds provided to the city school district were perhaps “co-mingled” with the Humphreys County School District, which is also included under the Mississippi Achievement School District.
“What I am afraid of is did our money get intertwined,” Starling asked. “During that time, Humphreys and Yazoo went into a pot, and it was chaotic.”
But Watkins said the funds were always kept separate.
“The ARP ESSER funds are treated as all other federal funds,” Watkins said. “The district expends the funds and then submits a request to the Mississippi Department of Education for reimbursement of those funds. At no time does the district have federal dollars sitting in an account. The Yazoo City funds and the Humphreys County funds have never been mixed or put into one pot. Each school district has its own separate bank accounts that hold each district's local/state (non-federal) dollars.”
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