Local educational agencies (LEAs) are required to update the ESSER 3.0 Public Plan every six months through Sept. 30, 2023. Each time, LEAs must seek public input on the plan and any revisions and must take such input into account.

Each LEA must complete the addendum and upload it to ePlan in the LEA Document Library (February 1 and August 27). The LEA must also post the addendum to the LEA’s website. Like the development of the plan, all revisions must be informed by community input and reviewed and approved by the governing body prior to posting on the LEA’s publicly available website. The intent of the plan is to provide transparency to stakeholders.

Please consider the following when completing the addendum:

On the summary page, the amounts should total for each relief fund: ESSER 1.0, ESSER 2.0, and ESSER 3.0. and equal the allocation amounts.
The LEA must respond to all questions in the document.
The stakeholder engagement responses should closely align to the stakeholder engagement in the Health and Safety Plan.
The LEA should ensure it used multiple models of engagement offered to stakeholders. Examples may include surveys, in-person or virtual committee meetings, town hall meetings, or other inclusive engagement opportunities.
LEAs should engage all applicable groups noted in meaningful consultation during the crafting of the plan.
The number of stakeholders engaged should represent the composition of students. For example, if students with disabilities make up 15 percent of students, then 10-20 percent of respondents should represent this subgroup.
Ensure the stakeholder engagement happened prior to the development/revision of the plan.
Plans require local board approval and public posting.
LEAs must update the ESSER Public Plan at least every six months through Sept. 30, 2023, seek public input on the plan and any revisions and take such input into account.
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act requires LEAs to post plans online in a language that parents/caregivers can understand, or, if it is not practicable to provide written translations to an individual with limited English proficiency, be orally translated. The plan also must be provided in an alternative format accessible, upon request, by a parent who is an individual with a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

ESSER 3.0 Public Plan-Federal Relief Spending Addendum

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief 3.0 (ESSER 3.0) Fund under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, Public Law 117-2, was enacted on March 11, 2021. Funding provided to states and local educational agencies (LEAs) help safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the nation’s students.

In the fall of 2021, LEAs developed and made publicly available a Public Plan-Federal Relief Spending. All plans were developed with meaningful public consultation with stakeholder groups. Like the development of the plan, all revisions must be informed by community input and reviewed and approved by the governing body prior to posting on the LEA’s publicly available website.

The following information is intended to update stakeholders and address the requirement.

General Information

LEA Name: Hamblen County Schools

Director of Schools (Name): Dr. Jeff Perry

ESSER Director (Name): Brantley Smith

Address: 210 East Morris Blvd, Morristown, TN 37813

Phone #: 423-581-3118 District Website: https://www.hcboe.net/

Addendum Date: Feb. 1, 2022

Total Student Enrollment:	10,140
Grades Served:	PreK-12
Number of Schools:	18

Funding

ESSER 1.0 Allocation:	2,311,033
ESSER 2.0 Allocation:	8,982,340
ESSER 3.0 Allocation:	20,173,061
Total Allocation:	31,602,725

Academics

1. Describe strategic allocations to accelerate Academic Achievement, including how allocations support the investments identified in the district’s needs assessment:

Tutoring: Before and after school tutoring, online 24/7 live tutoring with certified teachers, Homework Hotline. Additional tutoring has been added into ESSER 3.0 with Revision 1 in order to address requirements for quarantined students and CTE programs. Tutoring programs include Paper Unlimited One to One Tutoring 24/7 (9-12), District Before/After School Tutoring (K-12), Homework Hotline (K-12), Niswonger Project on Track (K-3), and Douglas -Cherokee After School Programs. Programs are generally focused on learning loss. Revision 1 to ESSER 3.0 is providing for additional after school tutoring.
Summer Programs: Augmentation to state funded summer learning programs and tutoring programs to enhance instruction, better address closing gaps, add high quality instructional materials, and increase quality staff participation.
Teachers & Teacher Assistants (2 & 3 yr Positions): ELA and math interventionists, facilitation of small group instruction for acceleration, RTI2, reading specialists. All focused on student acceleration and closing learning gaps.
TNTP Consultation: Hamblen County has partnered with TNTP from 2021 through 2023 to create and implement a strategic plan to recover lost student learning through maximizing district structures, roles, and schedules to make up for learning loss, outlining a comprehensive instructional vision and strategy, supporting implementation of teachers’ instructional materials, building instructional capacity amongst district and school leaders and teachers, and potentially even launching a new district-wide tutoring initiative to provide additional small group instruction to all students in the district.
Professional Development: We conducted a two-day, in-person training with Solution Tree in July 2021 focused on collaborative teams, data analysis, RTI, and SMART Goals with a focus on learning loss and student acceleration. We have also scheduled follow-up sessions during the 2021-22 school year to monitor progress and correct course as needed. This training is focused on school leaders, the district instructional team, and our school level Learning Leaders.
Much of what we are using this funding for is strategic and supports our needs. Technology, intervention and acceleration programs/curriculum, facilities, additional personnel in the classrooms, etc. are all strategic and can have a long-term impact on student achievement. The professional development and long-term planning noted above is singled out because of its ability to change culture and to specifically address our greatest needs: Learning Loss and Accelerating Learning.

2. Describe initiatives included in the “other” category

Learning Loss Supervisor: Management and leadership of all summer programs, tutoring programs, RTI2, learning loss and student acceleration.
Arts Integration Specialist: This is a part time instructional coaching position for Grades K-5. This certified teaching position will focus on integrated arts curriculum for math and ELA interventions and remediation.
Credit Recovery: There is a much greater need for credit recovery due to lost learning as a result of the pandemic. The shift to virtual learning has been difficult for many students and families. This has been complicated by the back and forth between in-person and virtual learning resulting from illness and quarantines. Many high school students have not adjusted well to virtual learning and the lost learning goes way beyond the missed instructional days from 2019-20. Attendance of virtual learners has been disappointing and many high school courses do not lend themselves well to the virtual environment. The result of these difficulties has been more students failing courses they need for graduation. We anticipate the number of students needing credit recovery to more than double this school year and beyond.

Student Readiness

1. Description of strategic allocations to support Student Readiness and the School-Related Supports necessary to access high-quality instruction, including how allocations support the investments identified in the district’s needs assessment:

Hamblen County is investing a significant amount of funding into the social, emotional, physical and psychological health of our students and their families. Our summer programs are designed to keep students and families engaged in learning and address nutritional needs. Our students will have greater access to licensed social workers, especially in our elementary schools, school nurses, behavior specialists, school counselors, and other adult mentors. Working closely with our juvenile court system, we will provide a liaison for students and families to help address their needs with the support of external agencies.
We are also investing significantly in CTE programs of study that support the jobs data in our region. We will establish at least three new programs that will allow us to provide greater opportunities for students as well as address social distancing concerns.
The district has also been selected for the Innovative High School Models program. This grant will provide $2 million for career readiness initiatives in the district. These initiatives include close partnerships with many of our industries in the region.
We are also participating in the AP Access for All program with the Niswonger Foundation. We believe this will open up additional opportunities for our high school students to be better prepared for postsecondary education.
Special Populations: The focus of this funding is on our SWD and EL populations. For SWD we are purchasing research-based curriculum and programs to better address students with dyslexia and students who are struggling readers. For our EL students, our critical need is ESL certified teachers. In order to address this need, we have added three additional EL teaching positions. We believe this will help better address learning loss by accelerating language acquisition for our EL students.

2. Describe initiatives included in the “other” category

School Nurse Positions: Positions will allow on-site coverage of all 18 schools. Revision 1 to ESSER 3.0 will provide an additional nurse and fund additional hours for nurses in order to ensure coverage throughout the county. Improvement of Nurses' facilities at each school to provide an environment that is more conducive to preventing the spread of infectious diseases. These upgrades will allow for isolation, distancing, and more sanitary conditions.
We are also providing for an additional “floating” Nurse to fill in as needed at schools and to help School Nurses complete medical plans for students. Additional hours will also be provided for School Nurses to work on medical plans and conduct other, pandemic related, duties.
School Resource Officers: Our SROs fill important roles around security, safety, and advising administrators. They are also role models, often help provide for the social and emotional needs of students, and facilitate a positive learning environment in our schools. Adding two additional SROs allows us to more effectively provide this important resource to our middle schools.
Touchless Water Bottle Fillers: Touchless water fountains and bottle fillers are being installed in all district schools to allow for less spread of viruses and bacteria.

Educators

1. Describe strategic allocations to Recruit, Retain and Support Educators and School Personnel, including how allocations support the investments identified in the district’s needs assessment:

Stipends for Staff: We have provided a one-time stipend of $1,000 for all certified staff and a one time stipend of $500 for our non-certified staff from ESSER 3.0. These stipends went to staff who worked for the district the majority of the 2020-21 school year. Stipends have also been provided to new hires for the current school year from ESSER 3.0. These stipends are $500 and $250 respectively.
Cost of Living Raise: For our 2021-22 General Budget, we provided a 3% raise for all staff. Currently, we rank at the top for employee healthcare in the state and in the top 25 districts for salaries and wages. We feel that salaries and benefits are crucial in both retaining and recruiting high quality personnel.

2. Describe initiatives included in the “other” category

Initiatives in the “Other” category all fall under Professional Development:
- TNTP Literacy Plan: Hamblen County has partnered with TNTP to create and implement a strategic plan to recover lost student learning through maximizing district structures, roles, and schedules to make up for learning loss, outlining a comprehensive instructional vision and strategy, supporting implementation of teachers’ instructional materials, building instructional capacity amongst district and school leaders and teachers, and potentially even launching a new districtwide tutoring initiative to provide additional small group instruction to all students in the district. A key focus of this collaboration is acceleration of student learning.
- TNTP Math Plan: Hamblen County will partner with TNTP to create and implement a strategic plan to recover lost student learning through maximizing district structures, roles, and schedules to make up for learning loss, outlining a comprehensive instructional vision and strategy, supporting adoption and implementation of teachers’ instructional materials, building instructional capacity amongst district and school leaders and teachers, and potentially even launching a new districtwide tutoring initiative to provide additional small group instruction to all students in the district. This phase will specifically focus on Math, K-12.
- Solution Tree Assessments and Leadership: We held a two-day, in-person training with Solution Tree in July 2021 focused on collaborative teams, data analysis, RTI, and SMART Goals with a focus on learning loss and student acceleration. We have also schedule follow-up sessions during the 2021-22 school year to monitor progress and correct course as needed. This training is focused on school leaders, the district instructional team, and our school level Learning Leaders. This is the third in a series of presentations around professional learning community processes we have held in Hamblen County. The previous two were in school years 17-18 and 18-19. This is an extremely important training for our district and school leaders, especially our teacher-leaders, as we work to accelerate learning throughout the district.
-Additional Substitutes: Additional subs are necessary to keep classrooms manned during COVID spikes, to allow teachers to attend to professional development needs, and for teachers to continue their work on the regional curriculum program (CER).

Foundations

1. Describe strategic allocations to Strengthen Structural Expectations, including how allocations support the investments identified in the district’s needs assessment:

- Technology: Student devices, teacher devices, internet access, classroom technology, learning management system
- High-Speed Internet: WiFi hotspots to families that do not have internet access, enabling all school campuses to be WiFi hot spots
- Academic Space (Facilities): Improving air quality (HVAC systems), addressing infectious disease prevention measures such as smaller class sizes and social distancing, improved/additional programs of study (building purchase and new construction/renovation)
- Monitoring, Auditing, and Data Collection and Reporting: Hiring a full-time bookkeeper to manage ESSER funding, established a full time position as Supervisor of Learning Loss and Student Acceleration.

2. Describe initiatives included in the “other” category

Extended School Program (ESP): The Extended School Program operated an extended summer program in 2020 until our schools re-opened on September 8^th of that year. In addition, ESP also provides before and after school childcare while school is in session. For 2020-21 and this school year, additional staff are required in order to maintain smaller groups of students. Additional costs for increased staff hours were also incurred during the closure to support reduced class sizes and maintain a safe and healthy environment.

Monitoring, Auditing and Reporting

1. Outline how the LEA is continuing to actively monitor allocations; conducting interim audits to ensure an appropriate application of funds; collecting and managing data elements required to be reported; and reporting this information to the community.

The Hamblen County Department of Education has developed processes of internal control in order to provide reasonable assurance that these objectives will be achieved:
-Ensure the reliability and integrity of financial information
-Promote effective and efficient operations
-Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, contracts, grant agreements, and budgetary limitations
-Safeguard assets
-Accomplish organizational goals and objectives
The Hamblen County Department of Education believes an effective internal control framework is essential to achieving these objectives. Effective internal controls also limit the opportunity for theft or unauthorized use of assets, including liquid assets, inventory, and capital assets. As per OMB guidance, the Hamblen County Department of Education has implemented a system of internal control in accordance with internal control standards published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (Green Book). The Hamblen County Department of Education Internal Control and Compliance Manual adheres to the five (5) components and 17 principles as set forth in the State of Tennessee's Internal Control Manual for Local Government Entities and Other Audited Entities in Tennessee (Internal Control Manual), which is based on the GAO Green Book.
In order to support and maintain internal controls with regard to ESSER funding, our district will employ 1.0 FTE bookkeeper and .05 FTE of another bookkeeper through indirect cost. These employees, along with existing district finance employees, will be responsible for maintaining thorough documentation and authorization practices. All required documentation of expenditures will be uploaded to ePlan for reimbursement purposes. Separate accounting records will be maintained for each grant received. Bank reconciliations will be performed each month by a Federal Programs Bookkeeper. A cash reconciliation of all federal programs will be performed each month by the Supervisor of Business. Monthly financial reports will be generated each month for management and the school board. All documentation will be maintained separately and in an orderly manner for each ESSER grant received.
In order to create cash flow and maintain compliance with 2 CFR § 200.305, the Hamblen County Department of Education has placed $1,500,000 into a Federal Fund reserve. $500,000 of the reserve is permanent, while $1,000,000 was transferred in July 2021 to create cash flow specifically for new federal funding through ESSER. This transfer will allow the district to operate on a reimbursement only basis.

2. Describe how the LEA will meet the requirements to spend 20 percent of ESSER 3.0 on direct services to students to address learning loss or indicate participation in TN ALL Corps.

We have budgeted 25% of ESSER 3.0 directly towards learning loss. We have done this by focusing resources on tutoring programs, intervention and student acceleration curriculum materials, and adding additional personnel positions in all of our schools. These positions include interventionists, reading specialists, ESL teachers, classroom teachers, and teacher assistants focused on RTI2.

Family and Community Engagement

1. Describe how the LEA engaged in meaningful consultation with stakeholders in development of the revised plan.

We continue to engage our stakeholders through the following programs, most of which have been in place for a number of years.
-Community Forums
-Parent Advisory Group: Quarterly
-Student Advisory Group: Quarterly
-Teacher Advisory Groups: Quarterly
-Teacher Forums
-Principal Meetings: Monthly
-Social Media Postings Soliciting Parent, Community, and Advocacy Group feedback
-District Web Site Postings Soliciting Parent and Community Input
-ESSER Stakeholder Surveys posted on the district and all school web sites
-Meetings with Advocacy Groups
Our largest underserved group is our Hispanic/EL population (29%/15%). Their most influential advocacy group, HOLA Lakeway, has a number of members who are Hamblen County Schools employees and we have worked closely with them on the development of this plan.
The public forums and School Board Meetings have been essential to receiving quality stakeholder input. The discussions between members of the community, board members, and district staff have been invaluable in formulating policies and guidelines that address stakeholder concerns and needs for the school year. Our approach in soliciting feedback for ARP ESSER was to talk to as many people in our community as possible rather than depending solely on a blanket survey. We have reached out to the community in general on our web site and on social media and received some feedback. We will continue to do so as we move through the next school year. We have also posted a stakeholder survey on all web sites.
The Dept. of Children Services here in our county has been an advocate for foster children and children coming back into the district from facilities around the state. Their recommendations have been seriously considered and adopted where feasible in this and other grants we are currently reviewing.

2. Describe how the LEA engaged at minimum 10% of the total stakeholders engaged vs. responses received in the development of the revised plan.

We continue to solicit stakeholder input through:
-Advisory Groups (Quarterly)
-Stakeholder Surveys posted in English and Spanish on all school and the district web sites
-Teacher Leader Meetings (Quarterly)

3. Describe how the LEA engaged a representation of a diverse population of stakeholders.

Our largest underserved group is our Hispanic/EL population (29%/14%). Their most influential advocacy group, HOLA Lakeway, has a number of members who are Hamblen County Schools employees and we have worked closely with them on the development and revision of this plan. Our approach in soliciting feedback for ESSER 3.0 has been to talk to as many people in our community as possible rather than depending solely on a blanket survey. This has allowed us to target certain groups, such as SWD, Hispanics, and others. These groups include HOLA, DCS, and STEP (tnstep.org). We have reached out to the community in general on our web site and on social media and received some feedback. We will continue to do so as we move through this and the next school year.

4. Describe how the LEA used multiple modes of engagement (such as surveys, scheduled in-person or virtual meetings, town halls) to gain input from stakeholders in development of the revised plan.

We are currently focusing on county-wide stakeholder surveys, teacher meetings, and individual in-person meetings to drive revisions to the original plan. We have recently submitted our first revision which was based primarily on input received as a result of the Delta variant’s impact on our communities.