Staff Reports
INDIANAPOLIS — Jennings County School Corp. has been awarded more than $1.6 million in grants for online learning from the state.
Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday that the $61 million Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund, provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, will soon go out to schools whose applications were accepted.
According to state records, Jennings County School Corp., in combined applications with Indiana Public Broadcasting and St. Mary’s School in North Vernon, will receive $1,622,400 from the fund.
Any school, both K-12 and higher education, could apply for the grant to help students and teachers deal with the challenges of remote learning created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications, which were due July 17, had to include detailed plans for use of the funding, including purchasing devices such as Chromebooks or iPads for students, upgrading laptops and other devices for teachers, and single-home Wi-Fi routers for families without reliable internet access.
On Thursday, Jennings County School Corp. officials said that 3,450 students were enrolled for in-person classes and 533 students are doing online schooling to start the year.
St. Mary’s, which is currently offering in-person classes, will not receive any money, but will get help with internet access from the school corporation if another quarantine goes into effect, Principal Lisa Vogel said. The Catholic school has 174 students in grades kindergarten through 8.
GEER funds will go to 1,366 public schools, 64 public charter schools and 124 non-public schools. In total, the fund will help nearly 675,000 school children. Marion County ($11,526,651), the Central and Southern Indiana Service centers ($3,375,000), Fort Wayne ($2,250,000) and South Bend ($1,857,900) are the only school districts receiving more funding than Jennings.
Schools in 81 counties around the state will receive the grants. Nearly $50 million will be going to devices and connectivity for K-12 schools while 12 colleges and universities will get the other $11.2 million for professional development and specialized training to help K-12 teachers, families and students.
Purdue University topped the list of colleges in funding with $1,548,823 while both the University of Indianapolis and Vincennes University will each receive $1.5 million. Ivy Tech Community College is listed as receiving $759,864.
With some schools and universities starting the school year in person, there have already been outbreaks of COVID-19 within student populations. Multiple K-12 schools have had positive cases in their buildings — several of them involving student athletes.
Meanwhile, the University of Notre Dame had 147 people test positive for the virus after just eight days of the new semester. A university spokesman said that the majority of the confirmed cases were connected to a couple of off-campus parties where masks were not worn and people were not socially distanced, The New York Times reported.
“I cannot say this enough — your actions that you take outside of school are just as important as those that you take inside the school building,” said Dr. Kristina Box, commissioner of the state health department, Wednesday. “Please don’t put yourself at risk of being isolated or quarantined; follow the guidance that we’ve been sharing for months.”
That guidance includes socially distancing from other people and wearing a mask in public spaces to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus, which continues to spread across Indiana.
The state reported 955 new positive cases on Wednesday. Since the start of the pandemic, Jennings County has recorded 240 COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths.
