Decatur School District Awarded $10k To Help During Pandemic

DECATUR, GA — The Decatur County School District will use a recently awarded COVID-19 grant to implement a virtual summer-school program. It’ll run for eight weeks serving kindergarten through twelfth grade students who require remediation based on performance from winter 2020.

The $10,000 grant is for supplemental learning services and will provide essential academic supports for targeted students before returning to school in the fall.

The Georgia Foundation for Public Education and the Innovation Fund Foundation – the philanthropic arms of the Georgia Department of Education and the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, respectively – are awarding $100,000 in COVID-19 Response Fund grants to Georgia districts and schools.

The COVID-19 Response Fund provides grants of up to $10,000 to mitigate the long-term impacts of the pandemic in the following areas: school meals, distance/remote learning services and software, facilities/equipment, mental health services, supplemental learning services, professional learning, and services for at-risk student populations.

Schools in low-wealth areas and schools identified for the most intensive state supports (Turnaround-Eligible schools) were given priority points in scoring.

“The selected schools and districts have comprehensive, creative plans to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their students,” said GFPE Executive Director Paige Pushkin in a news release. “I congratulate them on their successful applications and look forward to the implementation of their work. The need in this area continues – we received more than 800 high-quality applications – and we welcome partners who would like to continue the investment in Georgia’s public schools during this time.”

International Community School in Decatur serves students from more than 20 countries. It was awarded $10,000.

The school will use their funds to partner with New American Pathways to source translators and interpreters to communicate more seamlessly with the student body and families. The school will also develop a weekly family newsletter to ensure students and families have access to crucial information during the pandemic and beyond.

“These programs go beyond education – we feel confident that they will address the consequences of the pandemic in schools, but also in the community,” IFF Executive Director Jaclyn Colona said. “The selected schools and districts will use this small investment to make a potentially long-term impact on the lives of students, families, faculty, and the community. This process helped us see just how deep the need is all over the state, and we hope we can share these data with prospective partners in the near future.”

The CRF grants will fund a wide variety of projects in response to the pandemic – everything from small-group counseling sessions and other mental health supports to face masks and handwashing stations to virtual summer school and tutoring.

The Georgia Foundation for Public Education and Innovation Fund Foundation are strongly committed to helping schools recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a separate project, GFPE and IFF partnered with the Georgia Department of Education, Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, and AT&T to deploy 448 Wi-Fi rangers to 36 school districts. Click here to learn more.