Last week, Mayor Fuller announced an additional $1.5M in ARPA funding would be allocated to the schools. According to Fuller, in her weekly newsletter,
“the NPS financial team scrubbed their books, they let me know of $1.1 million in COVID-19 related projects that had not yet been reimbursed as well as a number of summer projects involving ventilation and new space for specialized programs. These one-time COVID-related expenses are exactly the right use of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and I immediately agreed to provide the funding.
Thus, I am providing an additional $1.51 million in ARPA funds, which in turn will relieve some of the budget challenges facing the Newton Public Schools. Altogether we have provided NPS with just under $16 million of ARPA funds and $6.4 million of CARES funds. The allocation for the NPS operating budget for next fiscal year, FY2023, is also increasing by 3.5% or almost $9 million to $262 million.”
As the Newton Patch reports, this comes after the School Committee sent this resolution and twelve members of the twenty-four member City Council sent this letter urging for more funding for the schools.
