Over the past year, Congress has blessed public and private schools in this nation with a $200 billion avalanche of financial assistance to combat the pandemic’s crushing impact on education.

Some may view that windfall from three major COVID-19 relief bills as excessive or potentially wasteful handouts.

Others may see it as a realistically mammoth response to combat the effects of a realistically mammoth health crisis that paralyzed much of the nation.

Boards of education and school administrators in the Mahoning Valley, Ohio and the nation must work responsibly in the coming months and years to prove the latter viewpoint prevails. That means they must ensure that every cent of this once-in-a-lifetime rescue package is spent wisely and according to the many strings-attached legislation that created this bonanza of bucks.

In Ohio, that sudden funding boom translates into $6.8 billion, of which $252 million is flowing into schools throughout Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Thus far, however, many school districts have little to show for that assistance.

As of March 31, some school districts have spent none of it, according to the combined COVID-19 relief database run by the U.S. Department of Education.

On top of that, Valley schools were awarded tens of millions more in Elementary and Secondary School Education Relief (ESSER) funding from the American Recovery Plan Act, signed into law in March by President Joe Biden.

Some rightly may wonder why some schools have not responded more rapidly, considering these funds are earmarked for an urgent “emergency.”

On closer inspection, however, the awards were made with a very wide window of time to use them. In the latest and greatest amount of funding approved this spring, ESSER II funds need not be exhausted until September 2024.

That does not mean, however, school districts should wait endlessly or consider spending their windfalls willy-nilly to help close gaps in their general funds or to give contractual raises to their teachers and other employees.

The language of all of the assistance bills places priority on spending the emergency aid to ease the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to be better prepared against any similar national emergency affecting education.

Routine expenses largely must remain the domain of local taxpayers.

That’s why school boards and administrators must take great care to ensure the aid is spent responsibly and transparently.

Care must be taken in planning what’s best for the needs of the individual district. Some districts may need major renovations to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to promote breathing easier for all who work and learn there. Others may require wholesale updating of their technology platforms to platforms to best prepare for effective online learning.

Care must be taken as well to ensure maximum input from the school district’s administrators, teaching staff, parents and students so that final spending decisions reflect a broad consensus of a district’s stakeholders.

Finally, care must be taken to ensure any and all expenditures meet the letter of the legislation on allowable spending. School leaders transparently should point out expenditures taken from the ESSER funding pie in all of their financial reports to school boards and the public. Districts also must report them in detail to the appropriate authorities in Columbus. State leaders then must follow through on on-site reviews of ESSER spending and cite those districts not following the proper spending protocols.

To be sure, the public will be watching. A recent informal, unscientific Vindicator poll found a clear majority of respondents believing school districts will not spend the emergency relief funding wisely. School leaders must act aggressively to prove that group wrong and to avoid public misunderstanding and disenchantment come time to vote on critical local tax levies for school operations.

Thus far, however, many school districts in the Valley appear to be obeying the rigid requirements. Most are planning intensified and expanded summer-school programming this year to help compensate for the demonstrated backslide in learning many students have experienced from long periods of virtual learning throughout the school year now ending.

Such responsible spending is to be applauded and continued. But like any cash cows meandering unexpectedly into public coffers, temptations to misspend or overspend loom large.

Those temptations must be avoided at all costs.