'Other' expenses accounted for more than a quarter of the $5.9 billion districts have spent from the largest federal stimulus fund.
Local educational agencies still have billions of dollars of COVID relief left to spend. If they don’t spend it by various deadlines, they may have to return it.
“The state Department of Education has not taken a very active role in managing how the money is being spent,” said Kris Patel, supervising auditor who led the team behind the October report.“If you’re trying to spend money at the very last minute, there’s always the high risk that you might misspend the money,” Patel said.After the pandemic shut down the world, lawmakers in Washington, D.
Ultimately, California public schools and charters got almost $29 billion in federal stimulus money. Billions more came from state programs lawmakers in Sacramento created. To get a cross-section of the stimulus spending, CalMatters asked more than 30 school districts for their accounting ledgers. Those districts included the 20 biggest and 10 random agencies across a geographically and demographically diverse swath of the state.Take Garden Grove Unified. In August 2020, with the school year about to start virtually, the district spent $895,000 on Apple Computer equipment.
Records from Corona-Norco Unified in Riverside County show stimulus spending in the district. Like many districts, they used relief funds for personal protective equipment. A Corona-Norco spokesperson said school staff oversee the program – which has helped reduce chronic absenteeism – to verify it follows school guidelines, and administrators reviewed content to ensure it doesn’t cross religious boundaries.Michael Fine said he didn’t expect to see a one-size-fits-all approach to using the money. Fine is chief executive officer of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, athat helps fiscally troubled school districts get their finances in order.
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