GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Last fall, Guilford County schools hosted hundreds of meetings with thousands of people.
Through talks with parents, students and teachers, they identified several areas for improvement. They include learning loss, safe schools, and preparing students for the world.
Since March 2021, school districts have been using ESSER funds in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
ESSER stands for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.
Guilford County schools used some of that money for security purposes, like body scanners in high schools, but the funding was only temporary.
The district is now asking state lawmakers for money to keep the scanner program going.
"The big thing that I would say with the money he explained with the ESSER going away will be the continuing fees that will be a crewed through our scanners because that is a yearly fee and then it will also be with the cameras there will be a camera licensure fee. Those are the two main monies that we're looking to ask for assistance in from the state because those will from this point forward, they will always be in order to maintain that equipment," said GCS Executive Director, Mike Richey.
The district is also hoping to continue tackling learning loss caused by the pandemic.
The school board is requesting more than $6 million to maintain tutoring programs and learning hubs.
"We recently got a 2.2 million dollar grant to expand those hubs to middle schools. We know that learning halls are having an impact on attendance, students who attend learning halls tend to also have greater attendance in the normal school day," said GCS Chief of Staff, Jose Oliva.
The board is advocating for the state to increase teacher pay and provide money for career and technology education programs.
The district plans to present these priorities to lawmakers Monday with hopes they will grant their requests.
It is not clear the total dollar amount the district plans to ask for.