ARP Success Stories

PLAN

city supports new stem kits

In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARP”) was signed into law. ARP is a federal funding package that includes direct relief to states, counties, cities, and towns, as well as public utilities, libraries, and transit agencies. The City of Monroe expects to receive approximately $5.5 million in two distributions. The City received the first distribution in June 2021, and the second distribution is expected in June 2022.

In June 2021, the Monroe City Council approved a plan to distribute ARP funding based on community input. The approved plan will distribute funds in four phases, with applications being grouped into three priority categories: Supporting Recovery, Reconnecting Community, and Building Resiliency

Three committees consisting of board and commission members review applications and make funding recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

The first application round was conducted in summer 2021, with award recommendations approved by the City Council in late 2021.

MONROE PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

ARP funds have been used by local businesses and non-profit agencies on projects benefitting the Monroe community.

One such project has been conducted by the Monroe Public Schools Foundation, which received an award of $5,000 to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) kits in our local classrooms. Two local elementary students have used STEM kits to code sounds and effects into stories they wrote in class. If it began to thunder and lightning in a story, those sounds could be heard at the time you came to that part of the story; if someone was laughing or a dog was barking, those sounds would come up on cue. In another story, the student used the kit to code a working stop light for the city street they created. Teachers observed the students working enthusiastically on coding their stories, and quickly realized the students were using a middle school curriculum as second graders to accomplish the intended project. At the end of the day, one of the students told the teacher how much they ‘loved playing video games at school’.

A video prepared by the School District shows the types of materials included in the STEM kits and how teachers are utilizing them in classrooms district-wide. That video is available at https://bit.ly/38rcZIh.

FUTURE ROUNDS

For information on future rounds of ARP funding plese visit monroewa.gov/1050 (English) or monroewa.gov/1058 (En Español).