District 196 accepts grant

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A $100,000 federal grant will pay for programs ranging from family and consumer science to technology education to FFA in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District.

The District 196 School Board officially accepted the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technical Education Grant at its meeting Monday night.

The district has worked since the 2008-09 school year with the Lakeville and Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school districts as well as Inver Hills Community College to apply for the grant, which requires would-be recipients to form consortiums to apply. This year, the local consortium received $223,540.29, of which District 196 will get $101,263.74.

Greg Clausen, the district’s federal and state program specialist, said groups at all schools in the consortium apply in January to receive chunks of the larger grant. Once those applications are in, representatives from all consortium members meet to divide the money.

This year, the grant money will fund a District 196 group that is building a high-mileage car, an FFA program at the School of Environmental Studies, DECA competitions and career events in the FACS and business programs.

“It’s just a real variety of things that it pays for,” Clausen said.

The money will also pay for professional development for teachers in the business and technology departments and it will cover the cost of some national assessments in the career and technology areas.

Clausen said the grant is intended as seed money to help get new programs off the ground. After three years, it’s expected that either districts will pick up the cost of the program or organizers will find new sources of funding.

Tags: school district 196, news, education