Local schools awarded million dollar grant

Lake Roosevelt High School is one of 10 schools in the nation that got word last week that it has been awarded a million dollar federal grant to help students succeed.

The Grand Coulee Dam School District was advised late last week by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray that Lake Roosevelt High School has received a four-year demonstration grant for Indian children totaling over $1 million.

Demonstration grants provide financial assistance to projects to develop, test, and demonstrate the effectiveness of services and programs to improve the educational opportunities of preschool, elementary and secondary Indian students to meet the purposes of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Lake Roosevelt High School Principal Brad Wilson, science teacher Ralph Rise, and others outlined three objectives in their application:

• increase the number of LRHS students who are motivated to stay in school and enroll in rigorous courses by providing them with engaging and relevant STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curricula and enrichment experiences;

• increase the numbers of high school students who complete, with a grade of “C” or better, three years of challenging core courses (English, math, science and/or social studies) and enroll in and successfully complete college preparatory and college credit bearing courses; and

• decrease the high school dropout rate and increase the number of LRHS American Indian students who take the college admissions PSAT and SAT tests, increase their SAT scores and successfully transition into either two-year or four-year institutions of higher education.

Wilson told board members Monday night that Lake Roosevelt High School was one of only 10 schools nationally that received the grant.

The grant came in time for LRHS to purchase needed equipment for its science department and to influence how the science department will look in the new high school.

Wilson said the first-year grant of $292,776 will enable the school to train, equip and plan an extensive program to help students.

Students at Lake Roosevelt will be able to develop skills that will enable them to take jobs with Coulee Medical Center, Indian Health Services and nursing homes in the future, Wilson stated.

While the grant is certain for the first year, the announcement coming from the U.S. Department of Education stated: “It is anticipated that the grant will be for a total of 4 years.”

The district has been anticipating the grant for a couple of months and now will be able to plan how it will be used to satisfy the purposes of the grant.