Board approves one-year teacher empowerment grant roles to support curriculum and mentoring

The school board on Aug. 11 approved staff to apply for a one-year teacher empowerment grant and authorized two grant-funded roles intended to support curriculum work and mentoring. Pam, a staff member, said the district previously used grant funds for curriculum mapping and that the state reopened the grant. "We used it only the, advanced teacher 1 that was for teachers to work on curriculum mapping, and they worked 5 days this summer to work and worked with Milton on curriculum mapping, common formative assessments," Pam said. She asked the board to add a lead teacher role that would work an additional 10 days to support emergency- and alternatively certified teachers. Pam said she had to correct a job-description file duplication but summarized the distinction: "The mentoring piece. The other 1, the advanced teacher's gonna still do more with the curriculum mapping, the, common formative set assessments, essential standards. The lead teacher's gonna be working with me and newly and emergency certified teachers." A board member moved the motion; another board member seconded it, and the board voted to approve applying for the grant and the supporting job descriptions. Board members praised the plan to use grant money to "do work we need to do" and to leverage internal expertise. No specific grant dollar amount was mentioned in the discussion. Pam said the grant is available to the district for one year or until funds run out and that the next step after board approval is to upload the minutes and job descriptions as supporting documents when applying.