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At the Lanett City Schools board meeting Monday evening, Superintendent Jennifer Boyd announced that the school’s application for two types of American Rescue Plan ESSER funding had been approved.

“Just as a reminder, our ARP ESSER reserve funds [of] $268,639 [are] being split between [our] interventions for summer learning and summer enrichment program, after school program, and interventions to address learning loss,” she said. “The biggest chunk was $4,646,326. That was our ARP ESSER, also known as ESSER III.”

Boyd said the ESSER III funds, like the reserve funds, will be split between several areas such as learning and summer enrichment, a comprehensive after-school program, personnel, technology facility improvement, professional development and parent and family engagement.

“We’re hoping to expand career and technical education at the secondary level,” she said. “And then there are also some building needs that we hope we’re able to fill with the use of these funds.”

Boyd said for more information on the funding, people could find the application on the Lanett City Schools website.

In other business at the meeting, Boyd said Lanett City Schools might loosen their COVID-19 restrictions, such as their mask requirement, if case numbers remain low.

“We’re thankful that our numbers have remained low,” she said. “For the month of November, we had a total of one case, and that was one student case. And for December thus far, we’ve had two student cases.”

Boyd said that surprisingly, she hasn’t received a lot of questions about when Lanett City Schools will relax its COVID-19 restrictions such as its mask requirement.

“A lot of our stakeholders — I’m very thankful that they trust us to make the best decisions to keep our students safe,” Boyd said. “But I know that there are some that want to know.”

Boyd said many parents weren’t aware that kids ages 5 to 11 can now get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“So that means that now, with the exception of our Pre-K babies, all of our students, all of our staff — they have the opportunity to get vaccinated,” she said.

Boyd encouraged parents to have their children vaccinated.

“We will revisit,” she said. “I will present to my board a modified plan. But again, that is if conditions continue as such that the numbers are low, and hopefully more people will become vaccinated.”

Boyd reminded everyone that school will be dismissed at 11:30 on Friday, Dec. 17. School will be closed for Christmas break beginning Dec. 20, and students will return to school on Jan. 4.