ROCHESTER — Over the course of four years, Rochester Public Schools received more than $41 million worth of COVID Relief funding.
The deadline for schools to either spend or earmark the funding was Sept. 30, 2024, meaning the district is just now beginning to become independent of that funding source. Superintendent Kent Pekel said the money was spent in one of two general ways.
“It was a mix between very tightly COVID-focused expenses, like upgrades in equipment and safety protections, and preserving positions that we otherwise would have had to cut that I think would have greatly impaired the district’s ability to support kids and parents and staff through COVID,” Pekel said…