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NEWPORT NEWS — Trying on a virtual reality headset in a fifth-grade geology class, U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott got a chance to see something he had told Newport News School Superintendent George Parker he had wanted to see from COVID-19 relief money: innovation.
He got to watch steam and pale-yellow sulfur racing out of a volcano, tilting his head and spinning around on his heels to get different views of the eruption.
As chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, the Newport News representative has advocated for what’s been the biggest federal aid program for K-12 schools ever.
“We wanted to open schools safely, we wanted to keep them open safely and most of all we wanted to make up for lost learning,” he said during a visit to Sedgefield Elementary School.
And making up for lost learning has been a major focus for Newport News City Public Schools with the third big piece of COVID-19 relief funding, Parker said.
The city schools received $9.5 million in March 2020, and $36.5 million in January 2021, which helped with the cost of upgrading school ventilation systems and air filters.
The $82.5 million received in April 2021 through the American Rescue Plan has funded ways to help students catch up after so many months trying to learn at home.
One major initiative is a one-to-one student to laptop program, which is moving beyond simply providing devices to tackle new ways of linking them to in-class learning and follow-up work at home, said school system grant writer Elizabeth Jackson.
Another is a masters-level program reading and literacy education program for elementary teachers. Yet another is a math coaching program in elementary schools, she said.
The school system is piloting STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — resource classes, too. In one classroom, Scott watched as 4th grade student E.J. Mendez tweaked the program for a LEGO tricycle he made that he and a friend were trying to route through a obstacle course.
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Parker said the school system hopes to expand its summer school program to serve 3,500 students this year, up from the usual 3,000 or so. One element of that will be two STEAM program — STEM plus arts — for 900 3rd to 12th grade students.
COVID relief funds are paying for expanded tutoring programs, free meals for students who need them throughout the year, and social and mental health supports.
The American Rescue Plan included more than $120 billion to help schools with funds for repairing ventilation systems, reducing class sizes and implementing social distancing guidelines, purchasing personal protective equipment, and hiring support staff to care for students’ health and well-being. It said schools must reserve at least 20 percent of the funding they receive to address learning loss.
Earlier, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides approximately $31 billion in emergency education funding to students, schools, institutions, and states across the country.
“I remember you said this is enough money to innovate coming out of the pandemic,” Parker said.
Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com