Moniteau School District accepted multiple monetary donations Monday that will go toward creating a greenhouse at the junior/senior high school.

After the board of directors meeting Monday, District Superintendent Tom Samosky said that the greenhouse will grow crops that will be distributed through the Moniteau Area Food Pantry.

“We've got some new programs in the works for that,” Samosky said.

Also at the meeting, Samosky told the board how some of the money from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, bills could be used by the district. Moniteau has been allocated about $1.4 million in total through both rounds of the ESSER, $238,832 from round one and $1,166,763 from round two, and at least 20% has to be spent on COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Samosky said the district, like many others, is awaiting federal and state guidance on how to spend the money, but some of it can be used for improving technology access.

“We approached the technology committee to make some significant purchase of digital screens for each classroom,” Samosky said in the meeting, “and to enhance our ability to provide remote instruction.”

Samosky said administrators are still evaluating the possibility of using some of the money to host summer school for students in need of extra help.