CAMDENTON, Mo. – Surrounded by a room full of educators and concerned residents at a special meeting Tuesday morning, the Camdenton R-III School District Board of Education voted 4-3 to submit an application to receive between $4-15 million in federal grant money from the U.S. Board of Education through a program known as Race to the Top.
Nancy Masterson, Chris McElyea, Selynn Barbour and Jackie Schulte voted yes. Jim Besancenez, Laura Martin and John Beckett voted no.
The board also voted unanimously to include a member of the school board from both Camdenton and Knob Noster to a consortium governing board.
Camdenton has joined Knob Noster, State Fair Community College and the University of Central Missouri in applying for the grant. The original draft of the application also included the Marshall School District. It was announced Tuesday morning that Marshall would not be participating and after the vote to approve the application, it would be amended to reflect that development.
According to the original application, the consortium intends to use the grant money, if approved by the federal government, to build a facility to house some of Camdenton’s programs; provide take-home laptops, iPads and tablet computers for all middle and high school students in the two districts; and allow the districts to integrate career-planning systems and develop curriculum designed to focus on “real-world applications” of academic content in order to allow students pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and their parents to better plan for the future.
At face value, many prominent members of the community have considered Race to the Top a step in the right direction – an opportunity for millions of dollars in grant money to be spent on educating local students.
The Camdenton Board of Aldermen voted last week to approve a letter of support written by Mayor Gentry North endorsing the Camdenton R-III School District's application. The Camdenton Chamber of Commerce also voted to support the initiative.
However, millions of dollars in grant money from the federal government rarely, if ever, come without strings attached. In this case, they are “bold reforms” in education, according to the grant.
Camdenton teachers will be required to implement a new federal-government guided learning program and will be evaluated under a new set of criteria.
"The program sets a high bar to fund those districts that have a track record of success, clear vision for reform, and innovative plans to transform the learning environment and accelerate student achievement," states a press release from the U.S. Department of Education.
“Race to the Top helped bring about groundbreaking education reforms in states across the country. Building off that success, we're now going to help support reform at the local level with the new district competition,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “We want to help schools become engines of innovation through personalized learning so that every child in America can receive the world-class public education they deserve. The Race to the Top-District competition will help us meet that goal.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), Congress allocated $383 million to the Race to the Top – District program, which is open to all school districts across the nation. These 4-year awards will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the population of students served through the plan.
The Camdenton School District will likely receive a response to the grant application in December from the U.S. Department of Education.
