Local school districts awarded second round of Michigan's Grow Your Own funding
NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Several Northern Michigan schools will be able to help their teachers develop and grow thanks to state funding.
A total of 96 districts in the state were awarded funding from the Future Proud Michigan Educator Grow Your Own (GYO) staff grants. The second round of funding went to districts that were not selected by the Michigan Department of Education in the first round, as well as some round one awardees looking to expand the program to fulfill staffing needs.
During the Dec. 20 Public Schools of Petoskey Board of Education meeting, director of teaching and learning Becky Smith announced that the district was selected for the second round of GYO funding.
She said she is expecting around $620,000 to come to the district, although final determinations will come in January.
Superintendent Jeff Leslie said he was given no notice the district got the grant beyond the generic Department of Education press release but was excited to see Petoskey included because he knows how much work went into the grant applications.
Smith said the money will go towards helping teachers, aides and secretaries in the district.
Alanson Public School was also included in the GYO grant funding. The district is anticipating around $22,000.
Alanson superintendent Rachelle Cook told the News-Review the grant will help pay for another endorsement on the district’s elementary resource room teacher’s certification, which is needed now that the teacher is working with preschoolers.
She will attend Northern Michigan University virtually while teaching at Alanson.
“This is something that Alanson would not be able to cover on our own,” Cook said. “This grant allows Alanson to take an exceptional current teacher that already knows our students and families to add an additional certification so she can service preschool special needs students."
Cheboygan Area Schools was also among the awarded districts.
Cheboygan superintendent Spencer Byrd said the program will allow some of the teachers' aides in the district to get their permanent teaching certificates.
He said due to the teacher shortage, the requirements to have a temporary teaching certificate has reduced, allowing people to take over a classroom if they are in an approved program and are working towards getting their certificate.
Byrd added that the district doesn’t know how much in grant funding they will receive, but there are some teachers already in mind to receive support from the GYO program.
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“In January we'll start planning for next August, and we already know it's going to be hard to find people with certificates in some of the areas that we're going to be looking for in the summer,” Byrd said. "We were already talking with people and ... encouraging them to consider entering into a Grow Your Own program.”
Byrd said small, rural schools often face issues with finding staff to fill gaps in certain areas, so receiving funding like this will help.
“This problem isn't going away anytime soon, so I'm very thankful that this opportunity is coming our way,” he said.
— Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Northern Michigan districts selected for 'Grow Your Own' grant funding
