The Jackson County Schools will support college and career readiness opportunities for local students through a new grant.
Director of Schools Jason Hardy presented the details of the Gear Up grant to County Commissioners. Hardy said funding serves as an additional allocation to help the school system meet specific grant requirements.
“This is for our Gear Up grant, which is a grant we use to promote and make aware postsecondary options for our students and families,” Hardy said, “It’s just an additional allocation so we’re just moving that money in, it’ll be spent out.”
Hardy said the grant requires the school system to ensure seniors sign up for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). He said Jackson County High School recently achieved a FAFSA completion rate of over 99 percent, which he noted was among the highest in the state.
“So that’s every kid in Jackson County High School will at least have opportunities for postsecondary if they want to go,” Hardy said. “And Coach Thomas and Miss Garrison do a great job, they chase families down and kids down because we want them to have an opportunity to go to postsecondary if they want to.”
Hardy said the FAFSA process can be daunting for families who have never completed it before. He said the grant has already made a difference in providing students with the financial means to afford further education.
“And without this, a lot of them probably couldn’t afford it and it’s, you know, it’s kind of daunting if you’ve never done it,” Hardy said. “So super proud of it and that’s just part of this grant, one of the required services that we do.”
In other business, the commission approved an Intergovernmental Cooperative Purchasing Agreement for the school system. Hardy said the agreement allows the district to save money by “piggybacking” on existing bids from larger entities for items such as technology and Chromebooks.
“So in essence, it’s saving school system, saving taxpayers money by being able to use this,” Hardy said. “We’ve been using this for five or six years, we got a new auditor, auditor said that they recommend for us to get it okayed also by the County Commission.”