The Menands Union Free School District received state and federal funding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These monies have been allocated for a variety of purposes, with public input from our school community.
We have included our plans for funding allocation below. If you have trouble viewing any of these documents, please contact our communications office.
COVID-19 related grant funding
State Relief Funding
Foundation Aid
The 2021-2022 enacted state budget included language stating that, for the 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, each school district receiving a Foundation Aid Increase of more than 10% or $10,000,000 in any given school year must post a plan of how the funds will be used to address student performance and need. It was in 2021 that the state implemented a three year plan to fully fund the foundation aid due to school districts annually. The three year phase in resulted in increases for the Menands UFSD that are long overdue. These increases will come to an end after the three years of catch up.
Foundation Aid is a primary source of state funding for public schools. A Foundation Aid Formula was created in 2006 establishing a calculation of proper apportionment to each of the state’s more than 600 public school districts. Since established this aid has not been held to the formula, rather it has been frozen or has been incremented slightly over the past several decades. Public school districts have never been made whole to this formula since it was set into law. Menands was the lowest funded district in the state receiving only 30% of what we were due under the formula.
A copy of this plan is available for viewing.
Federal Relief Funding
The 2021-22 enacted state budget includes language requiring local education agencies, such as school districts, that receive funding from the Federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund allocated by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP-ESSER) to post on its website a plan by school year of how these funds will be spent.
New York has been allocated nearly $9 billion in ARP-ESSER funds, with a minimum of $8.09 billion (90 percent) going to local education agencies, including public schools. Menands UFSD has been allocated $802,041.
A copy of this plan is available for viewing.