By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

During their Jan. 13 regular meeting, Lake Orion Community School’s announced that they were receiving additional CARES funds.

“There was a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill at the end of December,” Kirby said. “Really what it means for the schools is that we’ll get about four times of what was received under the first CARES Act.”

LOCS initially received $3,882,260 in CARES funding, according to the district’s budget amendment for the 2020-21 school year.

Kirby explained that the additional funds are expected to be around $500,000 for LOCS.

“We are going to take that money and help families by subsidizing our SACC (School-Aged Child Care) program for our elementary before and after school program,” Kirby said. “Because of the adjustments we’ve had to make to maintain the continuity of our programing and having a shortened elementary day…we are going to use those funds to subsidize that cost for some families…I think it’s a great use for the funds.”

This subsidization is expected to provide families with two free hours of after school care.

“The first two hours, the 1:00 (p.m.) to 3:00 (p.m.) time period, is the time period that, because we’re on a shortened day, is really causing families to incur additional costs. So, what we’re looking it is using the funds to support the first two hours, of those days for those families,” Kirby said.

Trustee Scott Taylor pointed out that this time extension stretches fairly close to that of a normal school day.

Payment for the program will not be an hourly rate but a sessional fee, explained Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John Fitzgerald.

“From a conceptual point of view it’s not an hourly rate it’s a sessional fee, you’re taking a slot so to speak,” Fitzgerald said.’

Currently, the district’s SACC program has a capacity of 36 students at each elementary school.

“We also, just to be clear, there are opportunities if there are families that have free and reduced lunch and there are issues with funding, certainly support those families as well,” said Kirby.”