District staff presented details of a five‑year Lilly Endowment Phase 2 grant awarded to the School Town of Speedway and answered trustees’ questions about timing, match requirements and program rollout.

Lance Stause, the district presenter, said Speedway Schools was awarded $884,000 through the Lilly Endowment Phase 2 initiative. The grant requires a 20% local match of $221,000 and spans five years. Stause said the award is intended as a sustained investment, not a one‑time boost, and will be used to scale high‑dosage tutoring, expand Advanced Placement support, and sustain related professional development and program incentives.

Program elements described at the meeting include: high‑dosage tutoring delivering roughly 1,500 hours annually to small groups of one to four students across all grade levels; use of district teachers as tutors to align tutoring with classroom instruction; continued funding and expansion of AP incentives and guaranteed coverage of AP exam fees; and professional development to increase AP course offerings. Presenters said Speedway students earned 528 qualifying AP scores in the past school year and that AP incentives and program expenses in recent years exceeded $100,000.

The presenter said the Lilly funds were received in a single installment and that the district is responsible for managing the funds for the five‑year grant period. He said the district expects tutoring expenditures to remain roughly flat over the five years and that the required match may be spread across the five‑year timeline.

Board members asked about cash flow and match timing. The presenter confirmed the grant arrived in one installment and that the district has five years to meet the 20% match requirement. Trustees also asked whether spending will grow over time; the presenter said high‑dosage tutoring is budgeted as a sustained, even amount across the grant period and that AP‑related costs were budgeted to account for increasing participation and success.

The presenter also said the district submitted a Phase 3 application in August and expects to hear whether it was awarded in December; phase 3 applications may award up to $25 million and can support broader initiatives such as STEAM across a district.

Why it matters: The grant funds target academic achievement and equity initiatives across the district, covering tutoring, AP program costs and teacher development, and require a local match and multi‑year management by the district.