To remain in a 100 percent in-person learning environment, the Franklin County School District plans to use these funds to prevent the mitigation of viruses such as Covid-19, in a way that will be sustainable for many years to come. Several of our facilities are not adequately built to meet the needed standards today, as far as accommodating students and employees in a safe socially-distanced environment.  Our students' and teachers' needs for set learning and teaching expectations are the priority of our school system.  We plan to purposefully use these funds to create and supply a safe and adequate learning environment that is retrofitted to reduce the mitigation of viruses and contagious diseases by expanding instructional spaces, meeting spaces and common areas such as classrooms, libraries, physical education facilities, restrooms, and meeting areas for conducting IEP, RTI, ELIEP, 504, and other intervention meeting needs.  Expanding these spaces will also allow for better sanitation procedures and more adequate space to prevent overcrowding and enough area to implement social distancing guidelines set forth by the Alabama Department of Health. 

Public student transportation, such as bussing is another area that we must use this funding to make safer for our students.  We will be adding extra bus routes to decrease the number of students on a single bus at the same time, in order to allow for proper social distancing while students are being transported to and from school and other school events, such as sports competitions. We will also be staggering bus drop-off times to keep the number of students in a common area at the lowest rate possible, which will require extra staffing.  Controlling public access to our school facilities is another way that we plan to use the funds. This aspect of the plan will help to keep our public events at a safe crowd capacity for mitigating the spread of viruses and contagious diseases.  

This funding will also provide extra school nurses, health services supplies and expansion of indoor space to continue to better equip our schools with prevention and/or proper handling of contagious illnesses outbreaks within our school system.  Prevention of contagious illnesses outbreaks is our goal and an element that plays an important role in that process is communication.  We plan to use this funding to improve our communication abilities from schools among staff, students, parents and the community.  Up-to-date communication devices and procedures will be purchased and the maintenance needed to keep it all in perfect operating order. 

Hiring additional instructional staff to reduce individual class sizes will aid in allowing students to be safely distanced from one another in a properly sanitized and safe learning environment. We will also provide quality extended-day tutoring and summer math and literacy camps. 

Our overall goal is to provide the safest environment for our staff and students in a way that is 100 percent conducive to active and engaged learning.  The total of this funding will be used to reach that main goal in a sustainable manner. 

Educating all students, no matter what differences or difficulties, in a well-rounded, safe and inclusive manner is our focus as a district.  We implement extended-day programs with certified teachers and staff that provide academic tutoring, learning enrichment, mental health, social interaction, scaffold learning support, and other interventions that serve as a basis to closing the achievement gap created by the detrimental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Our federal programs director is able to identify all students who come from underrepresented subgroups and provides this information to our school principals, health services staff and mental health/social services department.  We audit the provided education, mental health, health, and social services by way of formative and informal assessments from our district supervising department including survey feedback from staff, students, parents and stakeholders, supervisor observation, and ALSDE feedback. We adjust our programs according to the needs of our students, employees and community. 

We are willing to provide any and all services needed to help students receive a quality education and a quality of life to the best of our abilities. 

Our system’s mental health/social services coordinator (MHSC) will collaborate with our districts’ administrators, social workers, school guidance counselors, school nurses, resources officers, and experienced mental health therapists to continue to monitor our district’s mental health Multi-Tier System of Support (MTSS) that encompasses all three tiers. Our MHSC will also partner with the Riverbend Center for Mental Health to ensure that students who are in need of mental health services within our schools are served efficiently and adequately. 

The MHCS will monitor the feedback of partnering staff, students receiving services, and parents regarding the  implementation and success of the MTSS at all nine of our system’s schools, and make revisions of the plan, action and procedures as needed. Students and their families are referred to this service via school guidance counselors and principals.

Our MHCS will also reach out to our low income families (over 80 percent of our district) and provide information and guidance on how to apply for and receive government assistance for housing, food, utilities, medical care, mental health services and any other services available. One hundred percent of our student body and families have immediate access to our social services department. As a system, our social services advertises their services to 100 percent of our faculty, staff, students and parents/guardians.  Our provided services are all evidence-based and many government agencies’ established.  It is our focus to reach all ethnic, social, race, gender, ages and all disabilities that our student body encompasses.  

Our district’s social services program is to ensure that no students or their parents/guardians are exempted from mental health and social services, whether it be social and emotional mental health prevention, intervention and special services. Our social workers conduct their services and outreach in the following manner: 

• Collaborate with school officials, faculty, staff, counselors, and social workers to address the mental health issues surrounding students within each school

• Implementing quality mental health programs, which will include MTSS, in all district’s schools

• Working with school faculty, staff, parents, community members and other stakeholders and mental health agencies, such as Riverbend, to establish open lines of communication and mental health resources for students and families

• Serve as a liaison for school, parent, and mental health therapists  

• Provide clear and coherent expectations of the Franklin County Schools’ Mental Health/Social Services Program, which was developed based on the three tier MTSS

• Serve as the evaluator of mental health programs and services to ensure they are improving the gap in academic achievement.  Based on the evaluations, the MHSC will make improvements or revisions to the mental health programs in use

• Ensure students who are in need of further mental health services, beyond what the district’s mental health programs and partners can provide, receive or at least are provided with information regarding the services they are deemed in need of

• Be proactive in establishing and maintaining working relationships with community services such as Riverbend Center for Mental Health, Community Action and Franklin County Department of Human Resources.  

Our mental health/social services department is under the direction of our guidance counseling department, which is supervised by our Superintendent of Education. 

ARP ESSER funds will be subject to all financial procedures that other federal funds must adhere to.  Purchase orders will be issued for all purchases and approved by the Superintendent or CSFO.  Monthly monitoring of expenditures will be conducted by the CSFO to ensure all funds are coded correctly and spent in accordance with the budget.  Franklin County Schools has an open-door policy with its finances and any requests for information from the community will be honored in a timely manner.  Year-end Financial Statements will be published in a local newspaper before December 31st and monthly financial statements are published on our website each month.  

Our school district’s communities play a vital role in the success of our schools. Improving communication between the schools and the communities is one of our focuses in allocating relief funding.  We want to keep our communities informed adequately so that they can help us to keep our students safe and our schools as efficient as possible. We want to communicate the services that are available to our families via our mental health and social services, health services and special education departments. 

Another point we anticipate to make in engaging families and communities using relief funding is renovating the school facilities that our families and communities frequent for school events so that we can adequately provide enough space for social distancing and a safe and sanitized environment in order to mitigate the spread of viruses and contagious diseases.

We will also provide adequate staffing and supplies  in our mental health, health and social services department to sufficiently provide services for school families.