As the city’s new public schools superintendent marked her first day on the job Monday, leaders in Springfield, Massachusetts gathered to highlight how millions of emergency relief funding from the pandemic is fueling numerous projects.
Standing in what was once a Friendly’s restaurant off of Sumner Avenue, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and other officials spoke about how some $60 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funds are being spent across the school system.
“This was the old Friendly’s, so I'll take that fribble to go,” Sarno said. “This is a renovation - we needed parking, we needed more pre-K classrooms, and we worked together to purchase - this building, and the new playground at the [SPS Sumner Campus Main Building], that's about $3.6 million.”
65 Sumner Avenue was once home to the restaurant and ice cream parlor before shuttering in 2018. Four years later, the city moved to acquire the property next to the Sumner Avenue Elementary School for $1.1 million.
The facility is now only a few months away from opening its doors as the Sumner Avenue Preschool – a project featuring three large classrooms that Sarno and others say made significant use of ESSER cash in the wake of COVID-19.
Sarno says it’s the result of the city not relying on the emergency funding for hiring or maintaining personnel – unlike other districts, he says, that are now finding themselves making cuts as the funding dries up.
“Many other school districts used these ESSER funds for personnel-type things, and now they've faced layoffs, service cuts and program cuts,” the mayor said. “We did not do that. We're using these for one-time enhancement that benefit all - I think that's extremely important.”
Among other things, ESSER funding was meant to help school districts across the country - initially supporting schools going remote, and later, efforts to reopen them and address potential learning loss amongst students.
According to the Department of Education, the City of Springfield has received nearly $241.5 million dollars in ESSER cash since the first round of funding in 2020, when the CARES Act was passed amid the onset of the pandemic.
That first round featured just under $18 million for Springfield Public Schools. The subsequent Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act brought the city at least another $67.5 million.
According to a dashboard on mass.gov, nearly all of that money has been allocated and claimed, but Springfield still has millions to spend via the third and likely final round of ESSER funding provided via the American Rescue Plan Act.
Of $156.3 million allocated via ARPA, $51.5 million has been claimed according to a spreadsheet on the state’s website, which appeared to reflect figures as of June 2024.
Identifying what projects would receive the money allocated was a multi-year effort, according to city Director of School and Municipal Buildings, Jonathan Carignan.
“… we released those architects to design those works, have follow-up meetings with principals, schools, individual stakeholders, to further put their ideas into action,” he said, describing some of the later steps in the planning phase. “Those ideas were across the board - classroom renovations, playgrounds - as the mayor mentioned earlier, there are nine schools between last summer and this summer that we're working on total HVAC system improvements [for], which will ultimately lead to air conditioning.”
The Balliet Elementary School on Roswell Street is in line for HVAC upgrades, along with extensive classroom and activity room renovations and other amenities via $5.6 million.
$5.8 million will go toward extensive HVAC work at the Daniel B. Brunton Elementary School off Parker Street, as well as overhauling playgrounds at the school and more.
According to Carignan, around two dozen of the projects involve playgrounds across the city. With a few already complete, he says the benefits have already been visible.
Speaking during her first day on the job, superintendent Sonia Dinnall echoed the benefits.
“Play is a full-time occupation of our kids, and when you see them playing with smiles on their faces and laughing and just being joyful, you know that they're being healthy, happy children, who will then come into our classrooms,” she said during the event Monday.
Other big projects getting funding – at least $4.4 million for electric service upgrades, racquetball court renovations and a new band shell for the High School of Science and Technology.
At Putnam Vocational, $2.1 million will go towards a new turf practice field, while a $6.7 million allocation will go toward work at the Samuel Bowles Elementary School for HVAC work, a new playground and more.
More details on the projects can be found here.
