The Calhoun County School District is pursuing a $750,000 grant for the Career and Technical Center that could bring a one-of-a-kind after school and summer program for 6th-9th grade students.
The program would feature robotics, art, chess, personal finance, music, physical education and more.
“The students accepted into the program would rotate through all the programs in five week blocks,” Career Center Director Kyle Clark said.
Kyle Clark
The program would be capable of serving up to 120 students, who would be selected based on a number of criteria.
“We would have a project director over the program who would monitor what students are struggling in school and provide them with intense intervention,” Clark said. “Our goal for the program would be to target students with poor attendance and who may be struggling in class.”
The program would be held from 3-6 p.m. three days a week at the Career Center.
“This is a new program that’s never been done before but we believe it could be of great benefit to our district,” Clark said.
Clark and Project Coordinator Kim Poteete have worked on the application for the 21st Century STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) grant. A total of $5 million is to be awarded. Calhoun is applying for the maximum allowed of $750,000 to be spread over three years.
Calhoun’s high percentage of “free and reduced lunch students” and the fact there is no existing after school program in the county for these ages are factors that could help the grant application be successful, Clark said.