Washington lands hefty DOE grant

Mike Grant, Washington Times-Herald, Ind.
·2 min read

Jul. 5—Washington Community Schools are sharing in more than $1 million in state education funding to assist in the school system's Pathways to education. The Indiana Department of Education awarded more than $57 million to 97 Indiana schools and community partners as part of the Explore, Engage and Experience grant funding. Washington Community Schools received an individual school grant of $320,780 and will share with 17 other schools in a $715,697 grant to the Indiana Construction Roundtable Foundation.

"That's not too shabby," said Washington Community Schools Assistant School Superintendent Steve Peterson. "The main focus will be to develop more project-based learning experiences at the high school. A secondary focus is to strengthen career awareness at the elementary level. We want to expand Kids at Hope which has been primarily a project at Lena Dunn. This grant will help us expand that throughout the district."

The community partners in the program include Crane Naval Weapons Center, Toyota and Daviess Community Hospital. Peterson says some of the money will be for equipment that will help students learn from those community partners.

"A large chunk of this grant is going to be directed toward equipment," said Peterson. "We have some money set aside for Project Lead the Way launch at the elementary. Also, money for technology. It will be for equipment for project-based education and we will work with those community partners. This will give us equipment that will help bring the experiences to the next level."

Peterson says he believes the school system's work with career pathways put Washington in a position to receive the funding.

"Certainly, the work our teachers have done in getting the college and career academy off the ground have put us in a spot to be a leader in the area if not the state in terms of what we are doing to prepare kids," said Peterson. "I think that had a lot of impact on us getting this grant. I think the fact the DOE has been here and they have been in our classrooms and see the work the kids are already utilizing. They know our teachers have the ability to grow this into the elementary grades."

Peterson points out that by moving career education and learning opportunities down into the grade schools, those children will be better prepared to move into the career paths when they reach the high school level.

"I think that is the exciting part of this," he said. "If we can get the equipment and boost up the STEM and robotics at the elementary level, then the foundation that these kids will have when they get to high school is just going to be tremendous. This is going to be good for all Washington Community School children."