The coronavirus pandemic has impacted so many different facets of our lives, but one of the hardest hit areas of daily life has been education.

Schools across our tri-state have had to adapt and implement new ways of teaching and keeping kids safe, and this new way of teaching and safety protocols isn’t cheap.

“We have spent, well as I said, we’ve budgeted, and when I say budgeted, that means most of the purchase orders have been issued for the $1.4 million," said John David Sandefur, Chief Financial Officer of Owensboro Public Schools.

Less than three months into school, and OPS has already had to spend more than $1 million due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But most of that covid related money isn’t going to hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, and masks.

“The first thing we did was we ordered a bunch more chrome books, so we expanded our technology footprint, then we also allocated some to hiring 20 additional monitors for our buses to take temperatures as they’re loading," said Sandefur.

But thanks to more than $1 million in CARES act funding, Owensboro Public Schools says their budget is in good shape even after all the additional spending.

“We received approximately $1.4 million," said Sandefur. "Our regular budget, right now, we’re doing okay, and we have not hit that budget right now with those supplies, as of this point. We would be having different discussions if it weren’t for that funding.”

44News reached out to Daviess County Public Schools and Owensboro Catholic Schools to hear how their budgets have been affected by the pandemic, but were unable to speak to them.