If the last three semesters were the time of a blindsiding health crisis and emergency coping measures, 2021-2022 is the school year of determination and promise.

Determination, because educators, health officials and parents want never again to watch students set back by lack of access to schooling and the vital encouragement they get from being in a real classroom. Promise, because $1.1 billion in federal ARP funds is in the pipeline, and the state has a plan to use it to address both pandemic losses and chronic problems.

United in their conviction that remote and hybrid learning don't measure up to in-person classes, Connecticut's schools are starting a new year. We applaud both educators and families for handling all the COVID-19 pandemic threw at them. If the results were lower than student achievement in past years — and they were — who is surprised by that? Now, with adults and teenagers able to be vaccinated and everyone of all ages wearing masks and following protocols, it is safe to teach and learn together again.

Guiding this and future years will be the principles of Connecticut's ESSER II (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) plan, which the state has laid out for using the American Rescue Plan funds.

There has been some criticism from teachers and members of the public that the plan for what to spend the money on is a product of insider thinking, particularly the state Department of Education and officials in the Lamont administration. We would also like to see an ongoing conversation with more people involved as to the specifics of best ways to enable students, support teachers and build in equity for underserved children.

The top priorities, however, are as obvious as can be from years of achievement testing, graduation rates and inequitable variations in children's readiness for kindergarten. The ESSER II plan would be off base without these: support students "across the board" with learning acceleration and social, emotional and mental health; support staff in academic renewal and their own social, emotional and mental health; and address the fact that underserved students have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and other, longstanding conditions such as poverty and racism.

Some encouraging news for both collaboration and leadership is Governor Lamont's nomination of Charlene Russell-Tucker as the new commissioner of the state Department of Education. Russell-Tucker is a former deputy commissioner who served as acting commissioner in the months after Miguel Cardona left the post to serve as secretary of education in the Biden Cabinet.

Leaders of the statewide teachers union, the Connecticut Education Association, who have worked with the acting commissioner all spring and summer, told The Day Editorial Board they give Russell-Tucker high marks for an "outstanding job of bringing people together" and for recognizing that a component of hiring and keeping more teachers is to build respect within and outside the profession.

The appointment of Russell-Tucker, who is Jamaican by ancestry, will put a Black commissioner at the top of the department once the legislature confirms her. She is a lifelong educator in Connecticut whose presence and prominence make her a welcome role model for students and staff of color.

The commissioner will not be the only one coming out of the pandemic year-and-a-half with new responsibilities and opportunities for collaboration. Local school boards and administrators, accustomed to working under state education department rulings but with perhaps little direct connection, suddenly needed, and got, specific recommendations for how to manage hybrid learning, respond to COVID exposures and even clean the schools. Educators say they welcome a new two-way exchange between local and state officials. The job that local school board candidates are running for this fall has gotten more intense, and they will need to be able to explain their readiness to voters.

It is true that throwing money at a problem never completely solves it, but if experienced and committed people have already worked to identify the problems and the solutions, money is the missing ingredient. Connecticut acted responsibly with its first share of pandemic relief funds to fund summer schools and camps. The state should open the ESSER II discussion to teachers and parents to make good and permanent use of this allotment in creative ways — healthier school buildings, young children ready to start school, parents energized to participate, teachers at their most inspired.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.