McComb School District officials were singing a happy tune at Tuesday night’s work session after getting a double dose of good financial news totaling some $1.6 million.
The district will receive a two-year grant of roughly $600,000 for Project Open Book to improve literacy skills for students age 2 through 12.
And McComb schools also received its third five-year 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant, which will funnel $950,000 to the district to fund after-school programs.
The programs will be at the following sites: Kennedy Early Childhood Center, Otken Elementary, Tiger Activity Complex, McComb Business & Technology Complex, as well as sites at 24th Street Church of Christ, Pleasant Grove East McComb Baptist Church and Walker’s Chapel Free Will Baptist Church.
Rusty Whittington, grant director for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, said the district had a 30-day window to apply for the federal literacy grant. She said of the 191 grant applications submitted, 48 went to 21 states. Other sites in Mississippi are Starkville city schools and Vicksburg-Warren County schools.
“The exciting thing is we were ranked No. 4 for the quality of our proposal,” Whittington said.
And Superintendent Therese Palmertree said the district was especially flattered that “they came to us.”
“They have worked with the McComb School District in the past and they know our reputation,” Palmertree said, adding that school personnel came together and worked to get it submitted in a short turnaround.
Board president Maurice Chester said he was happy to hear the news. “I just wish the public knew the efforts you all put into this.”
The grant is from the U.S. Department of Education for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program, which aim to increase student achievement by promoting early literacy for young children and motivating older children to read.
The first year of funding will be $332,556, with some $225,000 in the second year.
Whittington said the district is looking at training for preschoolers and will make significant improvements at the libraries at Kennedy Elementary and the high school.
Students will be able to log in at any computer — home, school, wherever — and take part in the reading program.
Also in the works: a recording studio at the high school so students can report on school events in a program to be aired on local access cable.
Whittington said part of the plan is to make a more serious effort to reach out to parents — especially young parents — and give them training on the importance of literacy.
“We’re going to make every penny of this grant stretch as far as we can,” she said. “We are mindful of our responsibilities. We are more than excited about these grants. And we need to toot our own horn.
“I started here in 1972, and I intend to leave before I’m 72,” she said. “I never wanted to work anywhere else. ... My kids went here. We’re not staying old at McComb, we’re doing fresh things. The only way to continue to grow is to go out and say, ‘We are good. We listen to the negatives, but we talk about the good things.’ ”
McComb School District’s 21st Century program — Promise of Progress — will allow the district to offer one-on-one tutoring, the Read and Rise program, the R.E.A.L. literacy program, before and after-school homework help, credit recovery, arts and culture, character building, bullying prevention, recreation and sports and, most importantly, parent and family involvement.
The 21st CCLC will serve students four days a week for 21/2 hours a day. Students will receive a healthy snack, and transportation will be provided.
For more information on 21st Century programs, call Whittington at 684-4661.
The grant news topped off what Palmertree called a great week, with lots of community involvement at sporting events, the Show Up to Move Up school rally to boost attendance, and teacher core curriculum learning participation.
And Palmertree said construction has begun on the MHS track, which is being expanded. She hopes the work will be done in three months.
In other matters, the district also held a specially called board meeting to handle the following matters:
• The resignation of Denman Junior High teacher Kimberly Showers, Higgins Middle School teacher Alicia Bordelon, MHS teacher Emily Knight, and Otken Elementary child nutrition worker Alice Barns, assistant teacher Lytanga Hampton and vehicle services custodian Joseh Smith.
• The hiring of assistant teacher Comesha Tucker, custodian Glen Houston, and Higgins part-time teacher Virginia Burris. Longterm substitute Amanda Clark will pick up the other semester to replace Bordelon.
• The approval of the single-source purchase of PLATO computer-based curriculum, assessment and management program for $10,000
• An executive session for a personnel matter.
