The Petersburg School District has received a large federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant gives the district $350,000 every year for five years, which would be more than $1.7 million at the end of five years. Those funds will be used to help improve literacy skills for every kid in Petersburg from birth to 12th grade.
Lee Ann Jenkins is the district’s literacy coach, and she’s in charge of coordinating the grant. She said receiving the funding was exciting news.
“I was thrilled,” said Jenkins. “I know that this means that we are going to be able to give our community the tools that we need to continue to build that solid foundation in literacy.”
Jenkins said the district will be using the funds to provide literacy support long before kids start school. She intends to collaborate with the library’s existing reading programs. Jenkins said she also wants to work with the preschools.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to get out in the community,” said Jenkins. “Our hope is that I’ll get to model some of these lessons to the preschool educators here in the district, and be able to supply them with the resources that they need.”
The grant funding can also go toward supporting local homeschool programs.
“We have a great team of homeschoolers in this area that meet together and provide some opportunities for our students,” said Jenkins. “We want our homeschool community here to know that we have resources and training and modeling for them on how to teach reading to their students.”
Educational resources can be expensive. Jenkins said the district can use the grant funding to give organizations in Petersburg high-quality science-backed learning materials.
At the district level, they’re using the funds to expand a reading curriculum that has been successful at the elementary school. The grant also gives the district the ability to regularly screen students’ reading levels. Then, educators can intervene if students are falling behind.
Jenkins said this grant ultimately is a big community effort to help make kids of all ages into stronger readers.
“That’s what’s so special about this grant, is it’s really for all of us,” said Jenkins. “It’s for Petersburg as a whole.”
The district has confirmed they will be receiving the next two years of grant funding, and Jenkins said the district has a plan for all five years of the grant.
While this grant is only just starting, Jenkins said that looking forward, she’ll be partnering with the library to host a fall reading challenge. She said that more programming will be coming soon.
