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Item Nos. 10-12 <br />TO: Mayor & City Council <br />Grayson Path, City Manager <br />FROM: Charles Edwards, Resource Management & Consulting Co. <br />Gene Anderson, Finance Director <br />SUBJECT: CRF PROGRAM FUNDING — ASSISTANCE TO SCHOOLS <br />DATE: October 12, 2020 <br />BACKGROUND: <br />On June 8, 2020, the City of Paris elected to participate in the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) <br />made available by the State of Texas and administered through the Texas Department of <br />Emergency Management (TDEM). These funds are intended to reimburse communities for <br />expenditures related to the response to the Coronavirus pandemic. The City has since hired a <br />third party administrator to assist with the fund administration. The City is authorized by TDEM <br />to transfer funds to another local government provided that the expenditure is due to a public <br />health emergency. <br />During the summer, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released Operation Connectivity which <br />was designed to assist school districts with funds to promote remote learning. Initially, the TEA <br />matched the districts, dollar for dollar, for items purchased to increase the districts capacity for <br />remote learning. These expenditures included the purchase of hotspots, Chromebooks and IPad's. <br />The three districts within the City of Paris participated in this program. <br />STATUS OF ISSUE: <br />In late August, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) recommended to school districts across the <br />State that they approach their own communities who had received CRF allocations to support <br />another program designed to offset the remaining 50% spent by the districts on these purchases. <br />The TEA would again match, dollar for dollar, the remaining expense. This would, in effect, <br />reimburse the local school districts in full for these purchases. The local districts reached out to <br />the City regarding this opportunity. On August 31St, the City Manager formally responded to the <br />districts. This included a request to the districts of their specific need to be submitted to the City <br />