East St. Louis School

The US district judge Edgardo Ramos from the southern district of New York provided an injunction on Tuesday, which enforced the enforcement of one at the end of March by the US education secretary Linda McMahon.

McMahon’s command reversed earlier decisions by the bidges to grant the states additional time to issue pandemic aids. As a result, the school districts in Illinois immediately lost access to such funds of more than 77 million US dollars.

East St. Louis School District 189 lost most of the money of every district in Illinois. The district should receive more than 19 million US dollars to end a larger heating, ventilation and air conditioning projects in order to improve air quality in the interior clearing in all schools.

These projects are particularly critical because they reduce the risk of air diseases such as Covid-19 and the municipality has high asthma rates, said Sydney Stigge-Kaufman, communication director for district 189.

In response to a lawsuit that the Attorney General of Illinois, Kwame Raoul, and 16 other states submitted, Ramos’ Tuesday decided that the Ministry of Education cannot enforce the order, at least if the case is still being negotiated or until the court fulfills a different order.

It also means that the Ministry of Education has to make a termination of 14 days available to the states if there are other changes to the deadlines for the money expenditure on pandemic.

Stigge-Kaufman said the youngest injunction was an “encouraging” step.

“This injunction supports the position of states and school districts that have already initiated responsible, student obligations with these means,” said Stigge-Kaufman on behalf of the district. “We are still confident about a positive solution that enables our district to promote unnecessary disorders of school operations, the learning environments of the pupils or our tax integrity.”

From now on, the funds have not yet been released, she said.

Why extensions were granted

In 2020 and 2021, the Congress adopted auxiliary measures to help schools, which were directed to combat the loss of learning, to combat the loss of learning, which suffered from the school closure, and some of the unique needs of homeless children who were tightened by the pandemic.

In a press release from Illinois State Board of Education it was found that the vast majority of the federal aids of the state was issued. When the districts tried to spend some of their means, they encountered battles in connection with pandemic, such as: B. Problems of the supply chain that made it impossible to output the funds according to the original period.

For this reason, the US Education Ministry of Education East St. Louis has previously granted and other districts in all of Illinois selected an extension by spring 2026 to output selected, trained, nevertheless obliged warranty, the press release said.

On March 28, however, the Ministry of Education made an explanation in which the decision was revoked in which the funds would have to be issued on the same day until 4 p.m. ISBE received this E -Mail at 4:03 p.m. after the new deadline, as his managing director of communication Jackie Matthews previously told the BND.

The loss of funds meant that District 189 could not complete the HLK projects, since the city’s low real estate values ​​and high property tax ratings from the city prevent the lost funds from being replaced by local income, Stigge-purchase previously explained.

If the district does not receive the federal funds, Stigge-Kaufman must remove financial resources from other areas, according to the Stigge-Kaufman.

The revocation letter dated March 28 states that scholarship holders could submit new inquiries to extend their expenditure period.

Stigge-Kaufman said that the district submitted an extension application after the letter and was waiting to hear back.

Other districts in southwestern Illinois, which are affected by McMahon’s reversal of the expansion, and include the new injunction:

• Centralia High School District 200: 561,632 USD for construction.
• Madison Community Unit School District 12: $ 93,688 for construction and HLK.
• Pickneyville Community High School District 101: $ 87.196 for HLK.