ESSER Expanded Learning Opportunities

Thanks to a $2 million ESSER grant, St. Vrain Valley School District is expanding its P-Teach program that helps high schoolers get started on teaching careers in four rural school districts. 

St. Vrain’s program started in 2019 and now has 150 high school students enrolled, enabling them to earn University of Colorado Denver credits. The expansion provides the program in Montezuma-Cortez RE-1, Las Animas, Cheraw 31 and Estes Park school districts.

Alamosa Public Library created a lively summer learning program in a city park thanks to a $78,000 ESSER grant that got students enthusiastic about reading.

The Expanding Learning Opportunity grant from ESSER III enabled the library to buy books, art supplies and sports equipment and cover some of the staff salaries. About eight students ranging in age from 8 to 18 regularly attended the four-day-a-week program in Zapata Historic Park.

 Parents from Mancos used to have to endure a 56-mile round trip to Durango for their kids to make it to summer enrichment programs, but thanks to a $73,900 grant from CDE’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, a new program for K-8 students has started up in their town. Read more about Mancos' Summer Hub featured in the Colorado Sun.

Theatre SilCo in Silverthorne, formerly Lake Dillon Theatre Company, is filling an urgent need for after-school care in Summit County with $528,432 in grant funding from the ESSER III Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant Program.

Project Launch, a full-day summer program that is a collaboration between St. Vrain Valley Schools and four rural districts, is using a $2 million Expanded Learning Opportunities grant from ESSER III to expand the program over the next two years.

The Summer Arts & Culture Camp at Museo de las Americas, a program for low-income youth in downtown Denver for the past 13 years, has a waiting list 20 to 30 students every year, which is why organizers hope that pandemic funding through a CDE grant will help make the program more accessible.

Students in the East Grand and West Grand school districts have a safe environment to continue learning outside of their regular four-day school week thanks to funding from Colorado’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant Program. Colorado AreoLab’s 5th Day Afterschool and summer programs are helping students who struggled during the pandemic improve their math scores and build social emotional skills with project-based STEM education.