July 7, 2024
Dear Stakeholders in Adair County:
We are pleased to announce that the Adair County Board of Education has received its seventh annual Title IV grant. As part of the grant process, this letter is to inform you of the intent of the funds and to gain any input on how funds could be better utilized.
To be better informed on how to use these funds, the district found the following needs. During the 2023-2024 school year, the majority of the funds were used to pay the salary of a College/Career Counselor at Adair County High School. We would like to continue to pay this salary. The remaining funds will be used to assist teachers in obtaining Professional Development in the area of artificial intelligence, Microsoft Teams, and other technology updates which will benefit our students with more rigorous and innovative teaching strategies being used in the classrooms.
Here are the three categories (with stipulations) that the grant can be spent; not less than 20% of the money can be spent on examples of Well Rounded Educational activities; not less than 20% of the money can be spent on Safe and Healthy activities; and no more than 15% of the funds can be spent on technology devices, equipment, software applications, and other instructional technology purchases.
With the many roles that our College/Career Counselor will play, the counselor’s job description will fit both the categories of Safe and Healthy Student activities and the Well-Rounded Educational Activities criteria. With regards to the Safe and Healthy student component of the grant, we are offering many opportunities for our students. In addition to WATCH, KYASAP, Smoke Free Communities, Youth Coalition, and Trauma Informed Care training, we are excited about our “Sources of Strength” programs at both the middle and high schools. This program focuses on suicide prevention, bullying, and substance abuse. There has been both a national and statewide movement to prevent violence in our schools. We are hoping this program will individually help students to deal with problems they face on a daily basis. Our College/Career Counselor will head up thus program. To satisfy the Well Rounded Educational activities component of the grant, the College Career Counselor will help oversee and coordinate both Indian University and Chief Nation. Indian University enables high school students to earn college credits at a reduced rate. Chief Nation is a “work based” program to help students gain work experience. This also includes students pursuing vocational courses at post secondary institutions during their senior year of high school. To satisfy the technology component of the grant, we are paying for any new teacher at any of the schools in Adair County School District to become Google certified. As most of our returning teachers have been Google Certified at Level I, we are offering for up to twelve teachers at any of the four schools to receive Level II certification with Google. With the emphasis now shifting to using technology more productively in classrooms, we want our teachers to be able to access the wealth of resources through Google.
To meet the criteria of the grant, we must give stakeholders input on how to best spend funds for our students. I would invite your input on the Title VI grant. If you would like to give us input on how we could better utilize the funds, please call or email me at 270-384-2476 or holly.trowbridge@adair.kyschools.us with any suggestions.
Sincerely,
Holly Trowbridge
Federal Programs Coordinator
Adair County Schools Stakeholder letter can be viewed here: https://935wain.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/Stakeholder-Letter-2024.pdf
(Holly Trowbridge, Federal Programs Coordinator/Grant Writer – Adair County Schools)