This article is open to all free of cost, as the reporting for this entire series was made possible by a grant from the Poynter Institute with support from the Joyce Foundation.
Read all of our reporting on the American Rescue Plan Act’s impact in Ashland County here. And if you have any questions for the reporter, send her an email at mariah@ashlandsource.com.
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ASHLAND — In 2016, the Ashland City Schools board of trustees accepted the donation of a home on Mifflin Avenue — the Wertman property.
The home, donated to the board by Mary Lou Wertman, was to become an outdoor learning center for the district.
Since then, the home received renovations. It now features a living room, kitchen, restroom and classrooms. The nature around the property includes a wooded area, a stream, a yard, outdoor musical instruments and a sandbox.
The district has used the property for summer camps, including a young authors’ camp in 2019.
The property has also been used to help students develop life skills, according to Ashland City Schools treasurer Kyle Klingler.
Thanks to funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the district added a new use for the Wertman property. It became the site of an annual summer camp for students with developmental disabilities from 2022-2024.
But without ARPA funds, the future of that summer camp looks uncertain.
Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act grants
The American Rescue Plan Act was a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package passed to help with COVID recovery. Baked into it were funds specifically aimed at helping schools address learning loss and challenges for students with disabilities.
That money came through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. Two grants were available through that act: IDEA-B grants, and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) grants.
Districts that received funding from those grants had to use it “for the purpose of providing for the education and services of students with a disability, to strengthen education, drive reforms and improve results for students ages 3 through 21,” according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
Ashland County’s six public school districts received a total of $311,416.60 in IDEA and ECSE grant dollars between 2022-2024. The table below shows how that money broke down by district.
| School district | IDEA-B grant funds, 2022-2024 |
|---|---|
| Ashland County Community Academy | $5,916.89 |
| Ashland City Schools | $102,666.46 |
| Black River Local Schools | $58,617.74 |
| Hillsdale Local Schools | $48,463.47 |
| Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village Schools | $47,292.00 |
| Mapleton Local Schools | $48,460.04 |
How did districts spend the money?
Ashland County’s school districts reported how much they received and spent from IDEA-B grants to the state.
While districts had to share how much money they spent and break it down by category, they weren’t required to share specifics about how the money was spent.
Still, they did offer plans for spending the funds in budget detail pages. Ashland Source used those budget detail pages to question administrators about how they spent IDEA-B funds.
The school districts Ashland Source spoke with spent their funds on a couple of specific challenges: preventing summer learning loss and staffing.
Summer learning loss
At Ashland City Schools, those funds helped address summer learning loss. That term refers to student test scores dropping during the summer months, when students are out of school.
Using the Wertman property throughout the summer provided continuity for those students, Klingler said. That way, they didn’t lose the life skills they had the chance to practice throughout the school year. According to budget detail pages, the camp ran for three weeks in June and three weeks in August.
How did the district spend ECSE dollars?
The $13,135.12 the district received in ECSE grant dollars went to providing “additional itinerant support to our preschool students who attend other preschool facilities within the school district,” according to a budget detail page.
Klingler said costs included paying teachers and therapists, along with purchasing t-shirts and supplies.
But, he’s uncertain whether the district will keep the camp running next summer without ARPA IDEA funds onboard.
At Mapleton, the district also aimed to tackle summer learning loss through IDEA funds. The district created a “jump start” program. It brought students back to the building a couple of weeks early so they could readjust to learning before the academic year began.
All students could participate in the program. But, Mapleton specifically invited students below grade-level on their benchmark tests to participate. Benchmark tests show a student’s preparedness for a certain school subject or grade level.
The program ran four days a week for two weeks. Five or six teachers staffed the program, and it offered interventions focused in literacy and math. The district spent $46,805.68 on salaries and fringe benefits in 2022. It spent $1,654.36 in those same two categories in 2023.
In 2024, the jump start program had between 50 and 60 students. District personnel said that number was higher in the direct wake of COVID-19.Â
Skip Fulton, Mapleton’s curriculum director, said the district hopes to maintain the jumpstart program even as the ARP dollars evaporate. That district is looking at alternative funding to keep the program running.
Staffing
At Black River Local Schools, the bulk of ARP IDEA dollars went to paying its special education staff members.
The district’s final expenditure report from 2022 showed it spent $55,171.91 on salaries and retirement fringe benefits. In budget detail pages, the district explained it planned to use those funds to pay special education teachers out of federal monies.
Jill Beiser, Black River’s assistant superintendent, confirmed the district’s money did pay for special education teachers. Now that those funds have dried up, Black River hasn’t reduced its special ed staffing.
“We have reduced the number of intervention specialists we have, largely by attrition,” Beiser said. “Some people have retired, other people have taken employment in other districts closer to where they live and we have not replaced many of those people.”
She added the intervention specialists the district still employs work hard to fill the gaps.
