Manassas City Public Schools has received more than $14 million in its first installment of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act and the 2020 coronavirus relief legislation.
Manassas City Public Schools has received more than $14 million in its first installment of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act and the 2020 coronavirus relief legislation. The different pots — nearly $9.8 million from the American Rescue Plan, passed earlier this year, and $4.3 million from the 2020 bill — come with different, though somewhat overlapping constraints. For the larger amount, appropriated from the third COVID relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden in March, 20% of the money must be used to address learning loss that resulted from the COVID-19-affected year. Manassas, unlike neighboring Prince William County Public Schools, has kept most high schoolers from in-person learning since March 2020. But the state’s Department of Education is waiting for guidance from the U.S. Department of Education about whether some of the money can be used for capital projects, “including requests to use funds for pre-existing projects and new facilities,” according to the system’s grant award letter from the state. With a funding plan in place to replace Jennie Dean Elementary, the system’s oldest school building, some School Board members have floated the idea of using ARPA funds to accelerate construction or offset some of the cost of the new building.
