SPS used pandemic aid to hire 181 employees. With funding gone, how many jobs will remain?

The federal pandemic funding Springfield Public Schools used to hire 181 temporary positions will end this summer. The district has a plan to keep, and locally fund, 60 of the jobs.

Under the plan, half the retained positions will be filled with teachers working in school buildings as reading, math or instructional coaches.

Others will include paraprofessionals, assistant principals and school-community liaisons.

Superintendent Grenita Lathan's request to keep a third of the temporary positions — at a local cost of $4.57 million — will soon go to the school board as part of the proposed 2024-25 operating budget. The spending plan for next year must be finalized by June 30.

If approved, the district will primarily use reserve funds, which it has been building up over time, to absorb 60 of the short-term positions.

Here is a breakdown of the temporary positions the district wants to keep. The list includes the estimated salary and benefits costs:

• 15 teachers working as instructional coaches − $1,222,916
• 5 assistant principals − $513,928
• 5 school-community liaisons − $379,137
• 4 teachers for college and career access specialists − $317,492
• 9 paraprofessionals − $243,870
• 3.5 teachers working as Title I coaches − $285,494
• 3 physical education teachers − $218,015
• 2.5 teachers working as Title I reading coaches − $205,850
• 2 behavior interventionists − $168,154
• 1 director of family support services − $164,908
• 2 employment coordinators − $157,286
• 1 college access coordinator − $148,096
• 1 social worker − $87,388
• 1 teacher working as Title I math coach − $84,992
• 1 social and emotional specialist − $84,155
• 1 board-certified behavioral analyst − $80,068
• 1 teacher for at-risk − $72,769
• 1 behavior specialist − $71,387
• 1 human resources information systems coordinator − $71,196

Lathan: Funds used to 'address learning loss'

The pandemic that started in early 2020 was highly disruptive and prompted the U.S. government to send millions in aid to public schools across through the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, widely referred to as ESSER.

There have been multiple rounds of funding and the most recent, ESSER III, provided $61.5 million in funds for SPS, the final half of which was part of the 2023-24 budget.

The funding officially ends in September, with final reports due on how it was spent, but SPS plans to have the last of it committed by June 30, to coincide with end of the fiscal year.

The district has used the funding in different ways in recent years, such as subsidizing wraparound services provided before and after the school day. The temporary positions was just one strategy.

Lathan said the short-term positions were added to boost academic achievement and support students struggling with mental health and behavior issues.

"We utilized the funds the way they were intended, to address learning loss," she said.

Believing that having extra staff — at the classroom, school and district level — was one of the best ways to support students, the district had to communicate clearly to applicants that positions were not guaranteed after the funding ended.

"We reminded everyone these are temporary positions," she said.

Last week, the district told the News-Leader that employees working in the temporary positions that will not be part of the budget next year "had every opportunity to remain employed with SPS" through placement in other positions open due to attrition.

Bret Range, chief human resources officers, said once the district figured out which positions it wanted to keep and to cut, notifications went out.

"We worked on getting these folks placed in positions that they were interested and qualified to take," Range said. "Some of them chose to leave. We did everything we could to try and place those that were qualified and interested, whether it was a teaching position or a (paraprofessional) position."

Figuring out which positions to keep, cut

To determine how many positions would be added, where the staff would work and what they would be doing, the district conducted a "needs assessment." A formula emerged:

• One teacher intern per building. This individual served as a full-time, on-site substitute as needed in addition to other duties;
• One additional position for each elementary;
• Two additional positions for each middle, K-8 and high school;
• Other support positions, working at the district or building level, as needed.

Lathan said a teacher intern position was needed in each school because the pool of available substitutes decreased during the pandemic. SPS outsources its substitute staffing to Penmac Education Staffing but with fewer workers the company struggled to keep up with higher demand.

The district still uses Penmac, and noted its staffing has rebounded, but having a district employee on standby to fill in was a big help. If they were not needed as substitutes, the teacher interns helped provide academic and behavior interventions.

"That might be in a reading class or be in a math class," Lathan said. "It was just wherever that principal deemed that someone ... or a classroom needed extra support."

Nicole Holt, deputy superintendent of academics, said the district offered suggestions but each school had leeway to determine how to fill the short-term positions in a way that best suited that campus. Their most popular choices were additional teachers, behavioral supports and school-community liaisons.

"They had the option to tell us if there was something that wasn't within the designated list," she said. "We provided them guidance on here might be some things for you to consider but if you have something else in mind, just submit that."

Lathan acknowledged the district has shifted the way the 181 positions have been used over time by consolidating certain roles, or adding more in one area or less in another.

For example, the district brought on additional school nurses — beyond the one or more assigned to each building, depending on its size — early in the pandemic but then returned to regular staffing levels.

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In the past year, the district has used a similar process, with input from each school, on which of the temporary jobs may remain and be paid for locally.

Lathan said a work team was created and "reviewed every last submission from all of our campuses" to whittle down a list to present to the leadership team.

She said there was back-and-forth about what would have the greatest impact going forward.

Schools were asked to meet with the district's leadership team to present a "state of our school" and make the case, using data, to keep any temporary position.

"One of the priorities we had coming out of this was getting coaching-level support to every campus," Holt said.

The district has long been able to use federal Title I funds to provide reading and math coaches for schools with a high concentration of poverty. The federal pandemic relief funds allowed the district to temporarily provide that to more schools, which had to share coaches before.

"If teachers needed that in-time support, they didn't have to wait multiple days a week for the coach to be back on their campus to left instructional practice or strategies," Holt said. "That is something that we prioritized maintaining and keeping."

Holt said coaches also help provided professional learning or training so they can make changes in how they teach skills that students are not grasping quickly enough.

She said the handful of assistant principals the district wants to keep will also serve as instructional leaders in those buildings.

"Yes, they deal with discipline but they are also supporting professional learning teams," Holt said. "They are going into classrooms and giving instructional feedback to teachers. You'll see assistant principals coach and support a teacher with a lesson plan."

Boosting reserve fund balance during pandemic

Cara Stassel, executive director of business services, said the district knew the day was going to come when it had to decide which temporary positions to keep.

"There were a lot of districts who did not spend their ESSER funds on new items. They just kind of pocketed the money," she said. "Springfield was courageous enough to try new things and give the autonomy to the campuses to hire and have supports knowing it was not going to be forever."

The district is in the process of putting together its budget right now and will present it to the board in June.

Asked how much input the board has in the budget, Lathan said in addition to developing the strategic plan — that drives decisions — there have been board presentations, email updates and meetings where two or three members meet with district officials to go over options.

The state budget, with additional funds for K-12 education, has been sent to Gov. Mike Parson but until that is all final, the level of state funding for SPS can only be estimated.

Two months ago, Stassel said the district's overall revenue is expected to drop by $11.7 million during the new fiscal year, which starts July 1, as the federal pandemic relief funds dry up.

Springfield, like many districts in Missouri and across the U.S., has increased the reserve fund — also referred to as a "rainy day" or emergency fund — to provide a financial cushion during and after the pandemic.

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Local, state and federal revenue is provided to Missouri districts at different times of the year and in part because of that, the state requires districts to keep at least 15% of their operating funds in reserve to ensure they have enough cash on hand to pay bills and cover unexpected, one-time expenses.

The SPS strategic plan, approved by the board, requires a minimum reserve of 17%.

In late March, the district projected a reserve fund balance of 27% at the end of this fiscal year. The balance at the end of last year was 28.93%.

"Over the last two or three years, we've been intentional about building that fund balance," Stassel said, adding an update will be provided at the school board meeting Tuesday.

"We've built that up higher but now by retaining these positions and doing some other things, we're slowly coming back down to that more normal fund balance."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: SPS used pandemic aid to hire 181 employees. With funding gone, how many jobs will remain?