Greg Cartwright presents GEAR-UP check to county school board
Calhoun is one of five new counties to be awarded a GEAR-UP grant, according to Director of Curriculum Greg Cartwright.
"We're delighted to receive this funding, which will be used to deliver the GEAR-UP program to help our students," said Cartwright.
"GEAR-UP grants have helped open a door for so many students in West Virginia who may not have been able to envision a path to college otherwise," he said.
Cartwright told the Calhoun County Board of Education last night the local system will receive $761,051.17 for the project.
GEAR-UP supports early college preparation and awareness activities for low-income students.
It provides grants to states and partnerships to provide services to middle and high schools that have 50 percent or more of their students receiving free and reduced lunch.
GEAR-UP activities include tutoring, mentoring, summer camps, teacher training and special workshops, field trips to colleges and special events, financial planning for parents, support equipment and motivational materials.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded more than $31 million to Fairmont State GEAR-UP Partnership to administer a new six-year program.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller said "It [GEAR-UP] encourages students to embrace the idea of a college degree as a personal goal and prepares them academically for success in reaching that goal. Supporting the GEAR-UP program is about supporting the future of West Virginia."
"Every young person in West Virginia deserves the opportunity to go to college, and Fairmont State's GEAR-UP program is helping to make that goal a reality," said U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
"It is great news that soon even more Mountain State children will benefit from the program's important services. I commend the Fairmont State faculty and the students and families who work together to make GEAR-UP a success," Byrd said.
In 1999, Fairmont State received the largest of 164 partnership grants awarded throughout the U.S. The original grant, initially for five years and extended for a sixth year, served 16,553 seventh- through 12th-grade students in 29 middle schools and 18 high schools in nine counties: Barbour, Doddridge, Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Taylor and Tucker. Fairmont State applied for a new grant in March 2005 and received official notification of the grant award this month.
Fairmont State has been awarded the fourth largest of the 98 partnership grants given across the nation this year - the only new grant to be awarded in West Virginia.
The new grant will continue to serve the original nine counties and will expand the GEAR-UP program into Braxton, Calhoun, Gilmer, Lewis and Upshur counties.
For each of the six years of the grant, 6,617 students and their parents from 56 middle and high schools in the 14 counties will benefit from GEAR-UP programs and services.
More than 20 state, business and community partners, as well as hundreds of teachers, are committed to the program.
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