LANSING A change in state legislation forced Okemos Public Schools to increase in-person learning time or risk losing more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief funding.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law more than $2.5 billion in supplemental COVID-19 relief funding Tuesday, while vetoing another bill that would have prohibited the Department of Health and Human Services from restricting high school sports or barring in-person learning.
The bill that was vetoed contained language involving about $840 million in education funding, which was left unappropriated, according to Okemos Public Schools Finance Director Elizabeth Lentz.
To become eligible for funding if and when the money becomes available school districts must offer at least 20 hours of in-person learning per week for students by March 22. Okemos Superintendent John Hood said the March 22 date wasn’t added to the legislation until March 2, six days before Okemos schools began offering some in-person