The Mason City Alternative School held commencement Thursday for its 2021 graduating class, and a tone of thankfulness was present throughout the ceremony.
North Iowa school districts made out big in the most recent wave of government education funding.
The Iowa Department of Education announced the allocations of the third wave of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to school districts in Iowa.
School districts in northern Iowa all received a substantial amount of money from the new ESSER fund, with the Mason City school district taking home $6,224,140, the 16th highest total in the state.
Congress set aside $13.2 billion from the Educational Stabilization Fund, a part of the CARES act, for ESSER out of the $30.75 billion total allotment to the fund. This is all under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act signed into law on Mar. 11 earlier this year.
He urged them not to have students come back from spring break and potentially spread the virus.
Even when the summer came to a close, Hanft was hesitant at the start of the school year. After all, sending kids back into the unknown was a scary thing.Â
For the most part, what public health found instead in the school districts was inspiring.
âWhen we look at the numbers, the rates of kids getting sick, the rates of school teachers getting sick from exposure, those numbers continue to stay low,â Hanft said. âCOVID-19 spread doesnât happen within the walls of the school nearly as much as we thought.â
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