CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley County and Cleveland high schools are getting millions in federal dollars to enhance their classrooms.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded the county and city schools a joint $2.5 million Smaller Learning Communities grant. The local grant is one of 28 in the nation, totaling about $100 million, and the only one in Tennessee, county schools Director Johnny McDaniel said.
After two years, if the county and city school systems show they are doing what they proposed in the grant request, then three more years of funding will follow, said Patti Hunt, Bradley County Schools’ No Child Left Behind Act compliance coordinator.
The potential total is about $6 million, she said.
“They don’t expect you to transform the culture in your schools overnight,” Hunt said. “The goal is to create smaller learning communities within the high school so teachers and students can have more time to interact.”
That kind of student and teacher relationship keeps students in school, she said.
The Smaller Learning Communities grants are for high schools with 1,000 students or more. Students are organized into academies based on grade level, career paths or other interests, and they have their own space within the school. Academy teachers have the same planning periods and more time to track individual student progress.
McDaniel started a Freshman Academy as principal of Bradley Central High School, and now the school has a sophomore academy, too. Walker Valley and Cleveland high schools have freshman academies, as well.
Future academies could include career academies or an International Baccalaureate program, McDaniel said.
Hunt said the Cleveland school system was invited to take part and agreed. Cleveland High School Principal Autumn O’Bryan already was familiar with the grant, based on one previously issued to the Hamilton County Schools system.
Small learning communities at each high school will be somewhat different, Hunt said, because the schools are different.
On Monday, Denning recognized the city system’s participants, O’Bryan and Debby Torres, director of staff development for city schools.
“This additional funding source will allow us to implement programs that we could only dream about when we first began,” McDaniel said.