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Jenkins Co. Elementary School Lands Grant for Arts from Georgia DOE

The program will allocate $10,000 for Jenkins County in expanding fine arts education in various rural schools.

 The Georgia Department of Education is awarding a total of $270,000 to rural school districts to help them expand the fine arts opportunities available to their students, State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced today.

Nineteen rural districts are receiving stART grants, which can be used to create or expand arts initiatives that significantly improve students’ access to the arts. The grants are part of GaDOE’s broader Partnership for Rural Growth initiative, which seeks to expand the resources available to public school districts in rural Georgia.

“We know that the fine arts provide significant academic and non-academic benefits for all students,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “Arts education helps children develop language and fine-motor skills. It keeps them engaged in their education. It equips them with the creativity, ingenuity, and resilience needed to succeed in the modern workforce. At the Georgia Department of Education we are committed to providing the resources necessary to provide fine arts opportunities to all students.”

Through the stART grants, GaDOE is taking advantage of the flexibility offered within the Every Student Succeeds Act to use some federal funds to support arts learning and other programs that provide a well-rounded education to students. This is the second round of funding provided through the grants; the first round was awarded to twenty school districts in 2018. Click here for a summary of work completed during the first grant.

“The GaDOE start grant has had an amazing impact on the visual arts and band programs at our school,” said Alisha Montgomery, an art teacher at Willie J. Williams Middle School in Colquitt County, one of the districts that received a stART grant last year. “Through the funds we received…we were able to have more instruments available for student use and were able to customize the visual arts class, by using laptops and 21st century skills, to individual students’ abilities.”

GaDOE has also worked to expand fine arts instruction by hiring a full-time fine arts specialist at the state level, creating new virtual fine arts courses, refreshing standards, increasing the number of creative-industry-aligned high school arts courses, offering professional learning on arts integration for teachers of all content areas, and developing a new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) certification for school districts and a Fine Arts Diploma Seal for graduates.

All eligible school districts were given the opportunity to apply for the stART grant funding. For the purposes of the grant, a rural school district is any district currently eligible for funding under the federal Rural Education Achievement Program.

Districts Awarded Funding 

School District School Funding
Appling County Altamaha Elementary School $10,000
Baldwin County Baldwin High School; Oak Hill Middle School $10,000
Brooks County Brooks County Middle School $10,000
Brooks County Delta Innovative School $10,000
Colquitt County Colquitt County High School $10,000
Colquitt County Willie J. Williams Middle School $10,000
Cook County Cook High School $10,000
Cook County Cook Middle School $10,000
Echols County Echols County Elementary School; Echols County Middle School $10,000
Fannin County Blue Ridge Elementary School $10,000
Gilmer County Clear Creek Elementary School $10,000
Gilmer County Clear Creek Middle School $10,000
Gilmer County Mountain View Elementary School $10,000
Grady County Cairo High School $10,000
Jefferson County Jefferson County Middle School $10,000
Jenkins County Jenkins County Elementary School $10,000
Laurens County Southwest Laurens Elementary School $10,000
McDuffie County Thomson-McDuffie Middle School; Thomson High School $10,000
Meriwether County Mountain View Elementary School $10,000
Meriwether County Manchester High School $10,000
Pierce County Pierce County Middle School $10,000
Quitman County Quitman County Elementary School $10,000
Quitman County Quitman County High School $10,000
Taylor County Taylor County Upper Elementary School $10,000
Thomas County Thomas County Middle School $10,000
Thomas County Thomas County Central High School $10,000
Washington County TJ Elder Middle School $10,000

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