District presents full American Rescue Plan (ARP) report; $207 million allocated to learning, staffing and partnerships

St. Paul Public School District staff presented a three-year summary of the district's American Rescue Plan (ARP, ESSER III) work at the Jan. 7 Committee of the Board meeting, detailing allocations, monitoring and outcomes for roughly $207 million in federal funds.

Dr. Stacy Gray Ochea, chief of equity, strategy and innovation, said ARP funding required a comprehensive needs assessment and a district plan to address safe reopening, unfinished learning, lasting instructional improvements, and social-emotional supports. The district received ARP funds in 2021 with a three-year spending window that ended Sept. 30, 2024; Gray Ochea told the board SPPS fully expended its ARP allocation and reported outcomes.

The district reported 75 approved strategies across the plan. Key highlights the district reported include expanded literacy interventions (WINS/What I Need Now), credit recovery that helped students recover roughly 39,000 course credits over the period, additional counselors and wellness spaces in schools, expanded language supports for families, and partnerships with community mental-health and youth-service organizations. The presentation noted a 74 percent rate of typical or accelerated reading growth for students who received the district's WINS literacy supports compared with a 55 percent baseline for similar students not reached by the program during the measured period.

Gray Ochea described methods used for implementation and monitoring: strategy owners were required to provide logic models and quarterly project-management updates, the district built internal and public data dashboards for transparency and used a standing allocations team to review proposals and recommend funding. The report listed areas where ARP made operational investments: custodial staffing and cleaning hours, recruitment and retention stipends for bus drivers, upgrades to school health staffing and summer programs.

The board also heard about evaluation and lessons learned: the district said it created cross-functional processes that improved coordination, identified the need for earlier organizational capacity assessments when large funding streams arrive, and stressed the importance of timely data and partner onboarding to avoid bottlenecks. Gray Ochea said some promising programs have been sustained beyond the ARP window while others were sunsetted when the funding ended.

Directors asked about which investments had the greatest effect on mitigating learning loss. District staff highlighted credit recovery, targeted literacy interventions and family language supports as among the most directly impactful. Board members also raised questions about sustaining gains and keeping promising practices operating within core budgets now that ARP funds have ended.

Gray Ochea closed by noting national attention to the district's implementation and communications work: the district was invited to federal briefings and received recognition for its transparency and some program outcomes. The board did not take votes on ARP matters; the presentation concluded with a request that staff and the board use lessons learned to inform budget and strategy choices going forward.