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DAILY DEBRIEF: Rural districts will have a crisis if federal funding doesn’t fill void created by pandemic (podcast)

How are schools going to function moving forward? Stephen Parker Zielinski is the superintendent of schools at South Seneca. It’s a smaller, rural district, and we wanted to catch up to ask him about potential budget cuts, navigating a pandemic on limited staffing, and what some of his expectations were moving forward.

While he said the plans in place right now, to not only educate – but feed students are sustainable – they only stay that way if state and federal aid comes through. And if it doesn’t? Zielinski says it will be a very challenging day.

Today on the show, a look at the crisis facing schools if federal aid doesn’t come soon. It’s a financial crisis brought on by a public health crisis, and a combination of events that rural districts in the Finger Lakes were not prepared to handle.

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Editor’s Note: Check out Zielinski’s full-conversation with Josh Durso this weekend on Inside the FLX.