2022-23 ESSER Investments & Projects Plans

Category 1: Activities that promote health and safety, including purchasing cleaning supplies, supplying PPE, completing school facility repairs and improvements that will reduce risk of virus transmission and exposure to environmental health hazards, and providing mental health services and support. 

Approximately 29% of Highline’s investments meet Category 1 under ESSER Allowable Use.

Category 2: Activities that support academic acceleration efforts, especially activities that address the needs of students experiencing poverty, students with disabilities, multilingual/English learners, students of color, students experiencing homelessness, and foster care youth.

Activities:

•  Planning and implementing summer learning
• Supplemental afterschool programs
• Outreach
• Service delivery
• Administering high-quality assessments to assess academic progress
• Implementing evidence-based activities to meet the comprehensive needs of students
• Providing information and assistance to families on how to effectively support students
• Tracking student attendance and re-engagement efforts
•  Improving engagement in remote learning

Approximately 43% of Highline’s investments meet Category 2 under ESSER Allowable Use.

Category 3: Activities necessary to maintain district operations, including the coordination of COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts, providing school leaders with resources to address individual school needs, continuing to employ existing staff, purchasing educational technology for students, and planning for/coordinating the delivery of instruction and services during remote learning.

Approximately 27% of Highline’s investments meet Category 3 under ESSER Allowable Use. 

Category 4: Any activity authorized by ESEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), or Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins CTE).

Many of our initiatives categorized under Category 2, also meet allowable use under Category, such as our Learning Acceleration Programs for students in Special Education.

• Resources for Maintenance & Operations (18%): Ventilation, Cleaning Supplies, & PPE (+more)
• Highline’s Return to Learn Needs (24%): Investment Reserve to Adapt to Changing Guidance, Supervision Support, Waskowitz, Support Staff, (+more)
• District Covid Response (2%): COVID Testing and the Coordination of Covid Response & Recovery 
• Supporting the Whole Child (5%): Universal SEL Screeners, Mental Health, Behavioral Support (+more) 

• Launching Learning Acceleration (22%): Extended Day, Summer School, & Family Connections (+more)
• Supporting Remote Learning (12%): Virtual Academy, Elementary Remote & Distance Learning (+more)

• Investing in Communities & Families (10%): Partnership Specialists & Contracts with CBO’s (+more)

• Actualizing Strategic Priorities (7%): Curriculum Adoption & Implementation, Standards Based Grading, Instructional Technology, Professional Development, Leadership Pathways (+more)

Response strategies are short-term efforts that allow the district to mitigate the immediate impacts of the pandemic. These strategies support continuity of operations and wellness needs.

Recovery strategies build on our response strategies. These mid-term projects support the acceleration of academic and socio-emotional growth and development.

Redesign strategies integrate aspects of our response & recovery strategies with our district’s strategic plan; these are long-term strategies that will transform the way in which our system operates –from grading practices to staff retention efforts. These are the strategies that will continue to be present in Highline after ESSER funds have been spent.

Month	Deliverable/Goal
August	2021-22 Impact Report Released + Updated 2022-2023 Academic and Student Wellbeing Plans Released
September	School Year Begins
October	Budget & Data Review(s)
November	Updated 2022-2023 Academic and Student Wellbeing Plans Released
December	ESSER Video Vignettes #1
January	Updated LEA Safety Plan Due + 2022-2023 Budget Check-Ins & Review(s)
February	Mid-Year Impact Report Released + ESSER Video Vignette #2 & #3
March-April	Budget & Data Review(s), Year 3 Sustainability/Transition Project Planning, Updated 2022-2023 Plans
May-June	Year 2 Evaluation Begins + Year 3 Sustainability/Transition Project Planning Continues
July**	Updated LEA Safety Plan Due + Year 2 Evaluation Released

What was the process for designating ESSER funds in Highline for the 2022-23 School Year?

January 2022

The budgeting process for the 2022-23 school year began in January 2022, with the convening of various workgroups to engage in a mid-year review of our current ESSER projects & Plans.

These workgroups included current project leads, budget authorities and their teams and were designed to be cross functional (Groups were convened based on project Theory of Action instead of by department - bringing teams across the district together to engage in project-a-like reflections). The data collected during these sessions were consolidated into a district-wide report, as well as individual departmental reports, to help inform budgeting decisions and conversations to occur in February 2022. 

February-March 2022

Based on the data collected from a variety of sources, including project progress and current expenditure reports, budget authorities and cabinet began to re-prioritize their ESSER funds for the remainder of 2021-22 and for 2022-23 school year.

This re-prioritization opened up additional funds in the budget for use, and a district-wide call for proposals in the form of a budgetary decision package, was released. Cabinet received and reviewed 34 decision packages, far exceeding the dollars remaining for designation. After evaluating each decision package based on the project's relation to an existing strategic initiative, overall explicit focus on furthering equity, feasibility of implementation, and long-term sustainability (among other categories), cabinet approved 17 decision packages for adoption and implementation in the 2022-23 school year.  

April-June 2022

Beginning in April, over 64 project planning packets were released to project leads and budget authorities, to be submitted in June. These project planning packets required project leads to narrate their successes and data for the 2021-22 school year, and areas where they were seeking to improve. From there, leads articulated their theory of action, goals, and key project milestones for the 2022-23 school year. For each project, project leads also described how they would engage the students, families, and the community in planning and implementation, as well as articulated in which specific ways their project would further equity. As we proceed throughout the 2022-23 school year, the district will convene project groups at least three times, and revisit not just their goals and milestones, but also their described strategies for furthering equity and engaging students, families, and the community in implementation. 

ESSER is intended to ensure that schools return to operations safely, as well as help students experience learning acceleration and receive increased social emotional and mental health services/supports.

As a district, our planning was initially focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic; utilizing ESSER funds to help cover increased operational costs by paying for PPE, instructional technology, the increased FTE needed to keep up with facilities/maintenance needs, upgrading our HVAC and filtration systems, and support temporary classroom spaces/staffing to comply with Health and Safety Guidelines. As we entered the third round of ESSER funding, we utilized thought exchanges, school surveys, student assessments, and state-wide data to identify potential recovery strategies.

We began to consider how we might invest in strategies that allow us as a district to re-design our traditional approaches to education in support of Student Academic and social-emotional well-being; ultimately, such investments are designed as long-term strategies that will support students and families beyond the immediate impacts of the pandemic itself.  

As part of receiving ESSER 3 Funds, Highline was required to submit an Academic and Student Well-being Recovery plan in May 2021, as well as a safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services plan in August of 2021.

Like all districts, Highline appropriated most ESSER funds toward initiatives that supported learning recovery and school safety efforts in alignment with OSPI’s key themes: student well-being, student and family voice, professional learning, recovery and acceleration, diagnostic assessments, and community partnerships.

Each of these themes are outlined in relation to each funding area throughout the 2021-22 ESSER Funding Project Overview, which is serving as an updated version of Highline’s Academic and Student Well-being Recovery Plan posted in Spring of 2021.