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Health & Fitness

District 15 STEM program's first-year costs nearly 100 percent funded

District 15 has already secured funding for nearly all of the costs associated with implementing a junior high STEM program next year.

During the District 15 Board of Education’s April 11 meeting, Superintendent Scott Thompson reported that the District has already secured funding for nearly all of the costs associated with implementing a junior high STEM program next year.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and employment in these fields remains on the rise while the number of students graduating with degrees in these areas is projected to remain flat. Beginning with the 2012-13 school year, District 15’s junior high students will be able to enroll in semester-long enrichment courses that will strengthen their skills in these academic areas.

This program will cost $200,000 to implement—$100,000 in each of the next two years.

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However, the District has secured $98,851 of funding to cover the program’s first-year costs, and another $58,851 to offset the program’s second-year costs. Administration will continue to look for funding sources to cover the cost of the second year with a goal of both years being 100 percent funded through external grants.

A Project Lead the Way STEM Implementation Grant secured by Jim Garwood, deputy superintendent of schools, will cover $60,000 of the program’s first-year costs, and $20,000 of the second-year expenses (a total of $80,000).

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Additionally, an Elementary Career Development Grant secured by Mary Zarr, assistant superintendent for curriculum, special services, and school improvement, will provide $10,851 of funding for the program for each of the next two years (a total of $21,702), and federal Title II funding allocated for improving teacher quality will provide $15,000 of funding for each of the next two years (a total of 30,000).

The District will supplement these grants with $13,000 a year of its own funding that it would have allocated to the junior high math/science tech lab that the STEM program is set to replace.

The STEM program’s curriculum will come from Gateway to Technology, a middle school STEM program offered by Project Lead the Way, a nationally-recognized provider of free STEM curriculum. The Gateway to Technology program will prepare District 15’s graduates for participation in Project Lead the Way programs offered in Township High School Districts 211 and 214.

Classes within the STEM program will be offered among the junior highs’ rotation of elective enrichment courses. Consequently, the District estimates that 60 percent of its junior high students will take them. In fact, due to the number of elective enrichment courses offered at the junior high level, the only students who will not take the new STEM courses are those who choose to take two yearlong electives such as a foreign language and a musical offering like band or orchestra.

One course—Design & Modeling—will be offered through the STEM program in its first year. A second course—Automation & Robotics—will be added to the program in 2013-14. Any of six other course offerings could be added in subsequent years.

-Story Submitted by Community Consolidated School District 15

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