Indian River SD receives more than $2.2 million in grant funding

SELBYVILLE, Del. – The Indian River School District has received three state grants totaling more than $2.2 million dollars.

Of the three grants, one is specifically designed to support English Learners and low-income students.

The goal is to get new resources that will help improve the education of students, especially English Learners and low-income students.

“We’re often times mandated to do things for population of students without the finances that go with it,” said the Indian River School District Secondary Education Director, Renee Jerns.

“So, what the state is enabling us to do is actually put into motion those strategies and those programs that are going to work best for our English Learners and low-income students,” said Jerns.

With the new grant money educators will see $2,177,205 dollars go towards English Learners and low-income students at the school district.

“We hope to improve upon their reading confidence, their accuracy, paying attention to what the words are looking like, teaching them to really look at what they’re reading and think about what their reading as they’re reading it,” said Fulmer.

So, the school district will now be able to do new things like hire 13 interventionists who will work closely with teachers and help them improve current programs at the schools.

“Once we are able to collect that data that will give us insight into what is working and what else we need to change or add to our plan, so that low-income and EL students continue to be successful,” said the Indian River School District Elementary Education Director, Kelly Dorman.

It is something Leonel Garcia, a parent, says will play a huge role for Latino students. Garcia says he hopes his kids studying at North Georgetown Elementary School will find new opportunities.

“The biggest dream is for them to go to a university and for them to grow as people,” said Garcia.

Educators say there is a huge gap between the academic performances of English Learners and other students, so for them these grants were long overdue.

Two of those three grants will also provide learning opportunities for teachers. On top of that, the money will help create more after school programs, as well as improve the academic performance of special education students.