By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman said Wednesday that feedback from patrons is still needed before the district decides how to spend the last of the education related COVID dollars coming to them under ESSER III.
"This is actually a requirement of the ESSER III funding," Couchman said. "There's ESSER I, II and III, so when you say ESSER III, that implies there's more. This is the last round of funding for the COVID relief fund and there's some requirements on this round and one of them is that you get input from your stakeholders. So, we created a survey. It's posted on our Facebook page. We sent it out to all of our parents and it's just getting input on how they think the money should be spent."
It's important before you fill out the survey to read the document that restricts the spending, so you don't ask for something that can't be funded that way.
"There are only fifteen items that are approved to be spent on," Couchman said. "Some people have shared some really great ideas and I love them. Unfortunately, it's not an approved expense. Somebody said, let's build a gazebo outside, I said, that would be great, but not probably COVID related."
Any expenses submitted by the district have to be approved by the Kansas State Department of Education. The survey is due back this week.