Hawaii Legislators Dole Out COVID-19 Relief Funds To Improve Public Schools - Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaii Legislators Dole Out COVID-19 Relief Funds To Improve Public Schools
The infusion of roughly $557 million in federal relief funds helped the state avert furloughs and try to offset the impacts of the pandemic on students’ academic progress. Reading time: 5 minutes.
Hawaii teachers will get one-time bonuses of $2,200 and schools could see much-needed improvements in air quality and cooling under a funding measure passed Thursday by the state Legislature.
Lawmakers unanimously approved House Bill 613, which allocated roughly $557 million in federal relief funds to the Department of Education to be used to upgrade classrooms, support programs to help students catch up after a year of mostly distance learning and reward teachers after a particularly stressful academic year.
Schools will have to absorb $5M they used to buy PPE in pandemicâs early days
Schools to absorb $5M they used to buy PPE in pandemicâs early days By Lynn Kawano | January 13, 2021 at 5:46 PM HST - Updated January 13 at 6:46 PM
Itâs money they thought theyâd get back in federal emergency funds.
In a legislative briefing Wednesday, state education leaders said they were under the impression that the PPE spending would be reimbursed by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
âIn the early days, the schools provided and took the proactive measures of getting the PPEs,â assistant Superintendent Randall Tanaka told state senators.
Teacher Training Initiative Takes Shape Under COVID-19 Federal Grant - Honolulu Civil Beat
The initiative to develop digital lesson plans is being funded with $5 million in federal relief funds. Reading time: 5 minutes.
Hawaii community groups plan to convene dozens of local educators this summer to help build an open-source digital collection of lesson plans and teaching materials that will be free and accessible to students, teachers and parents by 2022.
Funded with half of the $10 million of a federal grant the state received last April to address pandemic-related learning loss, the effort addresses the need to develop more place-based, culturally relevant content for use in the classroom and home.