$1.2 Million Grant Awarded To Strongsville Schools

STRONGSVILLE, OH — A $1.2 million grant has been awarded to the Strongsville City School to further literacy efforts at the K-5 grade levels. Only 46 school districts in the state received grant funding for their reading programs.

"This grant will provide $1.2 million in funding over the next three years to provide three (3) K-5 literacy coaches, as well as Lexia Learning program to support reading instruction and intervention for every elementary school building," said Cameron Ryba, superintendent of Strongsville Schools.

The grants were awarded by the Ohio Department of Education. About $33 million in grant funding was awarded to the various eligible districts in Ohio. A competitive peer review process was used to determine grant recipients, the Ohio Department of Education said.

Less than half of the grant applications that were received by the ODE were fulfilled. About 40 percent of the grant money was earmarked for K-5 grade use. Special attention was given to districts serving large numbers of disadvantaged students.

"A special thanks to Director of Curriculum Erin Green for the countless hours spent to set the vision, develop strategic actions, and complete the comprehensive application for these grant dollars. Based on her efforts, these literacy supports will be in place for both our teachers and students to provide the strong literacy foundation we all desire for our K-5 students," added Ryba.

The Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant giving is actually down in 2018 versus 2017. This year the Ohio Department of Education gave out about $33 million in grants, down from $35 million last year. About 95 percent of 2017's grants were given directly to local schools or early childhood providers to improve literacy outcomes for children from birth to grade 12.

"Reading is the foundational skill that ultimately allows us to learn more, and through this application process, we were able to see the great work happening in Ohio’s schools,” said Paolo DeMaria, state superintendent of public instruction. “These Striving Readers grants put crucial resources directly into classrooms across the state, and we’re excited to work with awardees to improve outcomes for Ohio’s most vulnerable children."

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