SANTA FE, N. M. – New Mexico Secretary of Public Education Kurt Steinhaus is urging local school districts to leverage available budget to provide intellectual fitness to students and staff while updating school protection plans.
“Students can’t be informed and teachers can’t teach if they don’t sit in their school environment,” Steinhaus said. “Complacency is not an option. “
“We have a great duty to each and every new person in New Mexico to make sure that each and every student can attend any school in New Mexico and feel a sense of belonging, security, connection and that their identity is affirmed,” he said. Leslie Kelly, chief of habits at the Department of Public Education. health coordinator. “If those things are not present, they will not be there to be informed and grow to their full potential. It’s now, we have no choice.
By law, each and every new mexico school must have a site-specific school plan that includes procedures for responding to emergencies (crime, violence), natural disasters, epidemics, and accidents. Steinhaus said the time had come to update them. .
New Mexico and other states have won 3 rounds of the federal pandemic relief budget through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). For the 3 awards, 90% is distributed to state school districts and charter schools through secondary grants. nearly $1. 4 billion for New Mexico schools in 3 rounds.
The DEP approved all SSESer spending proposals similar to the social-emotional learning and intellectual aptitude initiatives. Steinhaus also suggested to school leaders valid tactics to use that budget to improve construction safety. Such uses are permitted if the need has been caused or exacerbated by COVID-19. The Department of Public Education has in the past approved expenditures to improve lighting or install fences, security gates, surveillance cameras or school communication systems.
On Friday, Roswell Independent Schools Superintendent Brian Luck met with district staff to identify his district’s security wishes and whether the federal aid budget can be used to address them.
“It’s clear that protecting students is our parents’ No. 1 priority for their children,” Luck said. “We need to make sure we’ve flipped each and every stone and take all the resources to make sure they’re safe. “
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