Loss Of COVID Related Grants A Concern As Parents In Palos Heights Push For Pre-Pandemic Normal In Schools
CHICAGO (CBS) – With masks now optional in many school districts, some parents are calling for everything to go back to a pre-pandemic normal in schools.
CBS 2 News Political Investigator Dana Kozlov learned even if districts want to do that, it may come at a cost not just a health or public relations cost but it could mean the loss of cold, hard cash.
The cost can include federal grant dollars tied to covid leaving some districts in limbo and being harshly criticized by parents.
Palos Heights School District 128 parents were in a tizzy after seeing this snippet of superintendent Merryl Brownlow's email to a parent on social media. She writes '...not adhering to other mitigations when we remove one could put our federal grant relief dollars of $1.3 million at risk...'
Some reached out to us convinced it meant money was behind student masking -- wrong.
District 128's students, as it turns out, are no longer masked. Masks became optional after a judge ruled Gov. JB Pritzker's statewide school mask mandate couldn't be enforced. This tweeted email snippet, according to the district's attorney, taken entirely out of context.
"She was explaining some of the other mitigations they were using, in schools particularly related to a Valentine's Day party."
But Stephanie Jones says the possibility of losing COVID-related grant money is a real concern. The money is tied to requirements that districts adhere to all local, state, and federal COVID laws and the specifics of a district's 'return to in-person learning plan' it submitted to the State Board of Education.
"Withdrawing mitigations quickly without adhering to their plan for how we're going to perform in person, there's at least the question mark or potential that they could be putting those federal dollars at risk."
For cash-strapped districts, in particular, that could be devastating. So, Jones says this email, really about who can help out at a Valentine's Day party, is an example of a complicated COVID landscape education leaders are forced to navigate.
"I don't think any superintendent who considers federal funding, or state funding when they are considering how to make a school safe in doing anything but what is responsible," Jones said.
We reached out to the Illinois State Board of Education to ask if any school districts have lost money or had funds suspended for failure to comply. They have yet responded.
