Rock Hill School Board Retreat Results #iRockrh #rhschoolboard #rockhill

One of the objectives for the Rock Hill School Board retreat last week was to set objectives the board wanted to put priority on. The graph above shows the objectives that received at least 50% support from the board.

The full explanation for the top priority, Academic Performance Improvement, was "Address and improve academic and other performance indicators including; test scores;graduation rates and; achievement gaps. For the second priority it was, "Preparing staff (and Parents) for upcoming changes to education". The third priority was, "Proactive efforts to promote and engage community involvement".

An interesting point was that technology barely made the list. Interesting, because the district has been moving toward a massive technology program. However, if you look at Project Red project guidelines, maybe not so interesting. Some of their criteria for a project:

• You must define student outcomes
• You must define teacher behaviors
• You must define building administer expectations
• You must have revenue positive outcomes
• You must define what success looks like and how you will know when you get it.

You could argue that the financial part would be included under community involvement, but the others are all included in the boards top three objectives.

iRock Plan Draft Has Been Released #iRockrh #rhschoolboard #rockhillschools #rockhill

The Rock Hill School Board will hear the administrations draft of a proposed iRock implementation plan at the December 10, 2012 Business/word session. Click here to see the Board Information for the December iRock presentation which has been posted on the district web site under Board Meeting Information Packet.

School Board Items for 2013

From education week:

10 Things School Board Members Should Do in 2013

By Tom Vander Ark on December 2, 2012 12:00 PM | No comments

1. Set a high bar

• Adopt the EPIC definition of college/career ready knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
• Insist on evidence of real college and career ready standards.
• Showcase examples of student work at board meetings.

2. Start a conversation about next generation learning

• Hold a work study on Innosight's report on blended learning.
• Hold a work study on OpportunityCulture: strategies to extend the reach of effective teachers.
• Read the profiles of Next Generation Learning Models.
• Ask teachers and community members what they are excited about and what they are concerned about (here's an example of a Rhode Island conversation).

3. Take a field trip to a next generation schools

• Visit a school in the Innosight or NGLC reports.
• Elementary: KIPP Empower, Rocketship.
• High school: Carpe Diem, Nexus, Silicon Valley Flex, Summit Prep.
• Districts: Mooresville, Riverside, NYC iZone.

4. Model tech-based learning and management

• Use social media to gather input and communicate.
• Run transparent digital meetings.
• Post policy proposals and ask for comment.
• Support district community communications.

5. Ask for a plan to provide universal access to digital learning

• Read and discuss Funding the Shift: Three Strategies for Funding Sustainable High-Access Environments .
• Adopt a Bring-Your-Own-Device policy ( here are 6 reasons).
• Support partnerships for improved broadband access.

6. Ask for an online learning plan

• As recommended by Digital Learning Now!, states and districts should expand access to full and part time online learning.
• The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (where I'm a director) offers great policy advice on online learning.
• There's no reason that every high school student in the U.S. shouldn't have access to every AP course, every foreign language, and every high level STEM course taught by an expert.

7. Ask for a blended learning plan

• Every school should receive support in adopting or developing a blended learning model that extends the reach of great teachers and personalizes learning for every student (watch for a January SmartSeries paper on this topic).

8. Ask for a one room schoolhouse plan

• It is now quite possible to run a great school for 50 or 100 students. Flex modelsecondary schools.
• There are at least 10 Reasons Every District Should Open a Flex School .
• District can also issue an NGLC-like RFI for new models.

9. Ask for a zero base the budget

• Shift to digital materials by 2015.
• Reallocate $250 per student for universal access by 2015.
• Fund new school/program development.
• Apply for waivers (innovation/charter status).

10. Ask your state for a new funding model

• Districts/networks should receive equalized and weighted funding.
• Funding should be portable for students.
• Funding to districts/providers should have a small performance-based component to incentivize completion and achievement (watch for a February SmartSeries paper on this topic).

Rock Hill School Board Retreat #rhschoolboard #iRockrh

Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting on Monday

The Rock Hill School Board will hold its November Business meeting on Monday, November 26, 2012 at the district office. The meeting will be full of recognition and policy discussion. The agenda is below:

Rock Hill School Board Work Session Notes

The Rock Hill School Board held its November work session on Monday, November 12, 2012 at York Road Elementary School. These are my notes from the meeting:

• Lawyer Don Harper swore in the board members who had been cleared by the elections office. Those were; Mildred Douglas; Ann Reid and; Walter Brown. There will be a recount on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 to determine the winner in the at-large race (won by Terry Hutchinson)
• Election of officers was delayed until the final board member could be sworn in. The board agreed to have a called meeting for Friday, November 16, 2012 to swear in the new member and elect officers.
• York Road Elementary updated the board on academic progress and several students told the board about their Quest classes.
• Dr. Dempsey Worner told the group about his efforts regarding an upcoming board work session (November 29 & 30).
• Dr. Harriet Jaworowski updated the board on efforts to update school media centers to the "digital" world.
• Dr. Lynn Moody told the board she would like to devote all of the December 10 meeting to update the board on the iRock progress.
• Dr. Harriet Jaworowski presented a proposal for new classes to be added to the course catalog (subject to board approval)
• Keith Wilks presented a new policy for first reading (Policy JLCF) concerning school nurses.
• Keith Wilks, for Dr. Luanne Kokolis, presented policy JJ, Student activities, and policy IHBH (Charter Schools) for second reading.
• Beckye Partlow presented policy GBEC (Drug Free) and policy GCQE/GDQE (retirement of professional staff) for second reading.
• Elaine Bilton presented policy DN (cash in schools) for second reading.
• Dr. Jane Sharp asked if a discussion on board communications at  Board meetings could be delayed to a 1st quarter work session (agreed).
• Dr. Harriet Jaworowski reported that all schools had revised their School Improvement plans and they were on their respective web sites.
• The administration presented a proposal to transfer $5 million dollars from operation to capital subject to the board's approval.

The following items were requested for future board meetings:

• New course proposals will be added to the November business meeting action agenda.
• Transfer $5 million to capital from operations.
• The following policies will be added to the November business meeting action agenda; JLCF;IHBH; GBEC; GCQE/GDQE and; DM
• Policy JJ will be presented after Walter Brown checks that recent legislation requires language that is currently in the policy.
• A board member requested a discussion of an issue over solicitations by staff (policy GBEBC). The request was made under policy KE and will be added to the next work session if it is not resolved before then.

There was no action taken after an executive session.

Rock Hill To Swear In New Board Members Monday

The Rock Hill School Board will hold its November Work Session on Monday, November 12, 2012 at York Road Elementary School. New members will be sworn in at 5:30 pm, followed by election of officers and then the agenda. There will be a presentation by York Road Elementary School and a couple of presentations related to ongoing work on the district's IROCK initiative.

Click here for a printable copy of the agenda.

Teachers Don't Want Youtube!

The Rock Hill School Board held their September Work Session on Monday, September 10, 2012. There was no action taken during the meeting. Fellow board member Ginny Moe has a blog post describing the events of the meeting. Click here to see what was covered and consider subscribing to her posts. And, while you're at it, send a note of sympathy to the superintendent. I doubt any superintendent in the country has  43% of their board posting on blogs. Lots of times this makes the superintendent's job 43% harder.

One of the items on the agenda was a discussion of the benefits of youtube and the requirements of CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act). Below is the presentation I wish we had been given:

"I want to thank the board for making the bold move to support our efforts to implement IPADS (and IROCK) into the classroom. At times this is overwhelming as we try to find new and improved ways of educating our children. Our task is to change our management style to incorporate the tools our students need for the world of today. We appreciate your patience.

We  realize that IPADS are just a tool, and that we have to empower our staff and teachers to find innovative ways of utilizing this tool to improve education. A lot of those ways are going to be with content found on the internet. Content that is currently blocked by our  firewall, CISCO ASA. For example, youtube  (#3 most visited web site) sites such as; Spangler Science;  Ted-ED; Youtube for schools; University classes from Berkeley, Stanford and MIT; NASA and;  Khan Academy to name a few.

But right now, our teachers are overwhelmed. The thought of opening up youtube to a class full of students is scary, and quite frankly, it's scary to our technology folks as well. We don't know if our network can handle the load and as administrators, we don't want to force something on our teachers before they are ready. However, as keepers of our taxpayer investment, at a time with reduced state budgets and widening achievement gap between rich and poor, we cannot afford to turn away from a free source of credible education tools (over 500,000).

We need to be gate keepers, not road blocks, supportive and not authoritative. We need to be in a position to be responsive  when the time is right - and all this needs to be covered in policy. We'd like for the board to consider the policy revision below:

Policy

LIBRARY EDUCATION MATERIALS SELECTION AND ADOPTION

Code IJL Issued 5/02

 

Purpose:  To establish the board's vision and the basic structure for the selection and adoption of library/media center resource materials.

The function of the school media center library is to support and enrich the instructional program of the school. Teachers and students must have access to The library must provide a broad range of materials with a diversity of viewpoints, abilities and interests.

The board has the legal responsibility for the purchase and internet access of all instructional materials. The selection and ordering of library books, audiovisual and other materials, such as internet access, for the library media centers are the responsibility of the school library/media specialists in accordance with this adopted policy.

Library/media specialists will identify, order and organize materials, and authorize internet access, that will implement, enrich and support the educational program of the school district. Principals, teachers, supervisors and other school personnel will give suggestions, recommendations and other assistance.

The media specialist will evaluate the existing collection and consult reputable, unbiased professionally prepared selection aides such as the following.

·         Children's Catalog

·         List of Sources of Selection

-          Library Materials for South Carolina Elementary and Secondary Media Centers

·         Elementary Library Collection

·         Good Books for Children

·         List of Books

-          S.C. Elementary Libraries

·         School Library Journal

·         The Horn Book

·         Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Materials selection criteria

The basic selection criterion is the appropriateness of the materials for use at the grade levels served.  In addition, the media specialist will judge the materials using the following criteria.

·         needs of the school and value to the collection

·         validity, accuracy, objectivity, currency and appropriateness of text

·         organization and presentation of contents

·         clarity, adequacy and scope of text

·         representatives of many viewpoints

·         high artistic quality and/or literary style

·         high degree of readability and/or comprehensibility

·         reputation and significance of author and producer

·         value commensurate with cost

Adopted 8/27/90; Revised 5/27/02

The school district's new web site went live on Monday.  Click here to check it out.

Notes From Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting

These are my notes from the Monday, August 27, 2012 Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting:
The board took action on these items:

• Approved the agenda and consent agenda with a 7-0 vote. The consent agenda included meeting minutes, personnel recommendations from the administration, and 6 facility rental requests.
• Approved Policy BE for second and final reading with a 7-0 vote.
• Approved Policy JICJ for second and final reading with a 7-0 vote.
• Approved hiring consultant Dr. Dempsey Worner for a November 29, 2012 work session at a cost not to exceed $3,000 and to hire the SC School Board Association for a 1st or 2nd quarter work session at a cost not to exceed $500. Vote was 6-0 with Norwood abstaining because he will not be on the board.

The board received a communication from Mr. Melvin Poole and Mr. Randy Hope about concerns some district employees were being treated unfairly. Click here to read the write-up in Tuesday's Rock Hill Herald.

The board recognized the following:

• The individual school teachers of the year and the district-wide teacher of the year.
• Board member Dr. Jane Sharp for reaching another level of board member professional development.
• The 12 new energy star schools in the district bringing the total to 13, the most that any district in South Carolina has. Rock Hill had the first elementary school, middle school and high school to reach this designation. The Energy Star program was started by the EPA in 1992 to encourage energy efficiency and represents a 35% reduction in energy usage for a comparable school. The school district has 6 more schools which are in the process of getting certification.

The board received reports as follows:

• A video showing back to school activities
• A presentation on a new web site the district will be switching to in a couple of months
• A report on initiatives the new food service group has already started for this year.
• An IROCK update.
• A report on community involvement for school volunteering and the efforts to fund school supplies, shoes and clothes, and  IPAD's.
• A report on the summer reading program conducted at many of our schools.
• A report from the Superintendent on goals for this year.

Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting on Monday

Meeting of the Board of Trustees 
Monday, August 27, 2012
6:00 p.m. – District Office Board Room
A G E N D A
   I.   Call to Order
 Approval of Agenda (Under consent agenda, all action items will be voted on after one motion and second to approve them without  discussion.  If a board member wants any action item discussed or voted on separately, the board member, before the agenda is approved, must ask that the action item be moved to the discussion item section.)

II.    Special Business
   A. Recognition of Energy Star Schools
   B. Recognition of Teachers of the Year
   C. Recognition of Dr. Jane Sharp

III. Citizen Participation

IV.    Consent Action Agenda
    A. Approval of Minutes
      1.  June 11, 2012 work session
      2.  June 25, 2012 business meeting
      3.  July 16, 2012 called business meeting
      4.  July 23, 2012 special business meeting
      5.  August 13, 2012 work session
   B. Approval of Personnel Recommendations
   C.  Approval of Use of Facilities Requests (5)
   D.  Approval of New Use of Facilities Request – Summit Church

  V.    Communications – Mr. Melvin Poole
   
 VI.  Report of the Superintendent
   A.  Announcements
   B.  Opening of School
   C.   Cyberwoven Demo
   D.  Food Services Update
   E.  iRock Update
   F.   2011-12 Community Report
   G.   Summer Reading
   H.   Performance Goals

 VII. Review of Work Session

VIII.    Action Agenda  
    A.  Approval of Policy BE – 2nd Reading
    B.  Approval of Policy JICJ – 2nd Reading
    C.  Approval of Facilitator for Board Retreat
     
  IX.    Other Business
 
   X.    Adjournment  

More Tips For Technology Implementation

Some comments on innovating education are worth repeating with our initiative toward using IPADS in our schools. Particularly item 2 and 6.

From the Innovations in Education blog:

Six Big Ideas for Educational Technology Leaders

15082012

Response to the  Leadership Day 2012 Challenge

I have had the opportunity to participate in some pretty great professional development recently, and so I’ve decided to share the highlights here and how I believe they apply to effective leadership strategies.

1. Identify your vision – and share it with your stakeholders.  Keep checking your goals and initiatives to make sure they are on track to move towards your vision. Just like in good instructional design, design your initiatives to meet your learning goals.  Without vision, confusion results, and your ability to be an effective leader is diminished.
2. Continuously model lifelong learning through the technology tools available today.  A leader in educational technology should be participating in a personal learning network, learning the way that our students learn and benefiting from the ideas and resources shared in this environment. If you don’t understand as a learner the power of social media, then  how can you lead others in helping students to tap into this vast resource?
3. Change “yes, but” to “what if?”  In this era of high stakes testing, there are always reasons not to try something new or apply what you have learned to make positive changes in the realm of student learning. It is easy to fall back on the “old ways” of schooling – and then technology becomes just another delivery method.  Stay focused on your vision, trust in what you have learned, and help your stakeholders to think outside the box –or better yet, build a whole new box!
4. Be a designer of learning.   Think like a designer!  Architects follow building code just as teachers should follow standards – but think how far beyond code an archtict goes in designing living spaces that are functional. Really, they go way beyond functional to make them personalized and appealing. This is what technology has the potential to do in transforming learning – by following the code and applying the principles of good design. In designing learning, the focus must be on the learning goals. Then, align the assessments with those goals, and begin to envision how technology can transform that learning experience. (Special thanks to Grant Wigginsfor sharing this concept and “What if” concept above!)
5. Be willing to take a risk, fail, and learn from it. Margaret Elizabeth Taylorstates in her dissertation  Teaching Efficacy, Innovation, School Culture and Teacher Risk Taking that “support for risk taking enhances organizational ability to overcome obstacles through adaptation and experimentation, allowing for continued effort toward implementation despite failures and setbacks encountered along the way.”  Just as we are understanding the importance of allowing students to fail on their pursuit of understanding and mastery, we need to allow this for ourselves as we strive to re-invent schools to increase student motivation and learning.
6. Practice what you preach Connected educational technology leaders understand the potential of blended learning and personalized learning to transform teaching and learning for students.  But what about professional development?  We need to apply these same strategies when we offer professional development for teachers.  Teach teachers the way you want teachers to teach students.

Should We Benchmark These Schools?

From Education Week:

20 Schools Innovating With Digital Tools

By Tom Vander Ark on August 15, 2012 7:00 AM | No comments

Co-written by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill 

Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, "Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?" That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions! 

1. Show & Tell. High Tech High does a great job using video to showcase its unique project-based learning model schoolwide. Ninth graders produce a film festival. 

2. Visual math. About 1,400 schools use the visual game-based ST Math featuring JiJi the penguin. For example, the Orange County math initiative tripled math proficiency. 

3. Student motivation. Innosight's Heather Staker says Acton Academy in Austin puts motivation first. Acton turned to programs like Dreambox,Khan Academy, Mangahigh, and ST Math for high engagement. 

4. Classroom assessment. As featured in a recent Getting Smart blog, the staff at Leadership Public Schools in Oakland built Exit Ticket, a classroom assessment and competency tracking system. LPS is the best example of a collaborative and distributed innovation agenda across a network of schools. 

5. Adaptive learning. Public Schools (PS) 49 in Bronx, NY used i-Ready to provide differentiated and personalized instruction in a blended rotation model to build reading skills. Within just 14 weeks, more than three times as many students using i-Ready were scoring on or above grade level in reading. 

6. Flipped school. Greg Green is principal of Clintondale High School in Michigan. They flipped much of their instruction using content on Gooru. Learn more about Clintondale on The Flip Institute blog. 

7. Game-based learning. Quest to Learn (Q2L) is a game-based NYC middle school where kids learn through design and complex problem solving in a learning by doing environment. According to Q2L, classes are challenging, immersive, and game-like learning experiences for students. 

8. Portable learning. Gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman is a Florida Virtual School student and took her learning on the road. 

9. Competency-based learning.Flex model schools, like Silicon Valley Flex, use a digital curriculum to support individual progress. Kunskapsskolan, a Swedish school network, which was recently described in a Getting Smart blog, uses technology to support individual goal setting. See CompetencyWorks for more on this topic. 

10. Project-based learning. The 100-school Edvisions high schools use Project Foundry and a variety of tools to support project-based learning and authentic assessment. 

11. Augmented reality. Chris Dede at Harvard University is piloting augmented reality (AR) science field trips with Chappaqua, New York public schools. Read more about Dr. Dede's work on Getting Smart. (And, by the way, we are very enthusiastic about the potential of AR to turn a walk around the block into a powerful social studies, economics, history, as well as science field trip experience.) 

12. Personal Learning Network (PLN). New Milford High School Principal Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) learned a lot from his PLN. His network taught him to transform the way he communicates and the way the school interacts with the community. Read Eric's greatHuffingtonPost summary. 

13. Parent engagement. Rocketship Education's Facebook page is almost completely run by parents. Each school has a social media leader who is responsible for posting information, events, photos, and video for their school. (For more, Alision Anderson described 10 family engagement strategies in this Getting Smart blog.) 

14. Rich Multimedia. Rocketship Education fifth graders create a multi-page report and 5-minute presentation about a global challenge on Google Docs word processor and presentation programs with Chromebooks for laude, cum laude or summa cum laude recognition. With Google Docs, students also collaborate with peers and advisors across the country in real time on documents and email. 

15. Travel. THINK Global School students use the latest equipment to "record, report, and share their global education online as they travel the world." 

16. Challenge. NYC iSchool blends computer adaptive learning with challenges that require students to work together to present real solutions to real problems. 

17. Art. Ypsilanti New Tech students create 3-D designs on tablets, then turn the works into 2-D photo images, which they can add brush strokes to make digital art. 

18. Citizenship. New Tech Odessa leverages tech in a deep way. The school uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other mediums to build trust and teach social media responsibility and digital citizenship. 

19. PoliSci. Eagle Tech Academy created a New Tech Network-wide project titled #myparty12. This project asks each kid to create their own political party. Each party will have to defend a policy, create a 30 second campaign video, the top five will debate and eventually the debate will take place online. They will be using Echo, the New Tech PBL LMS, email, Google email and Google Docs to work collaboratively. Social media will play a large part in this project. It will be exciting to watch the twitter stream, Facebook pages and YouTube videos. 

20. Heart. Mooresville, North Carolina superintendent says, " It's not about the machine, it's about heart," but his students sure make great use of their MacBooks. The innovation in Mooresville is the system--expectations, culture, curriculum, tools, and support. 

Rock Hill School Board Member on Wednesday's Straight Talk

Straight Talk: 08/22/12 Ginny Moe

Posted August 22, 2012 1:08 pm, Modified: August 22, 2012 1:08 pm | Filed under Programming, Straight Talk
By Mike Crowder

Rock Hill School Board member Ginny Moe joins Manning Kimmel on WRHI's Straight Talk.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Comments on Our Race To The Top Grant Application

As a follow-up from our Rock Hill School Board Work session a week ago, I was the only Board member voicing enough concern about teacher evaluations (based on test scores) to suggest we shouldn't apply for Race To The Top grant money. Let me say, that I did not oppose 360 feedback and suggested we should begin that immediately for the board and administration. A fellow board member  pointed out the board gets evaluated every two years with an election, but that tends to be pass/fail and doesn't lend itself to continuous improvement. I should also say that I believe the evaluation process for teachers/principals/superintendents/board can be improved greatly - and we should be continuously working on that.

Bill Ferriter, on his blog site "The Tempered Radical" has some good comments about teacher evaluations which you can read by clicking here.

Michael Lucas, Superintendent of the Oconee County School District has an informative post on his blog, "Lucas' Blog", on the discussions going on in Columbia about teacher evaluations. Click here to read his post. There is also a discusion of the recent meeting in columbia on the SC Schools Report Blog. Click here to read.

The Answer Sheet has a good article on using teachers for teacher evaluations. Click here to read the article.

TLNT has an article on problems with 360 degree feedback. Click here to read the article.

The scary thing about using test data to evaluate teachers/principals/superintendents/schools, is that you need a good understanding of statistics to be able to make sound decisions. I have not met a politician, school board member, or administrator who has demonstrated anywhere near the level of statistical understanding to accomplish this - and these are the people who claim to be working on the new evaluation system. The wrong evaluation system can make things much worse. Is it worth potentially messing things up for a one time shot of money that will not be enough to make a significant difference in our schooling? 

Anyway, below is a better description of the process that is happening this fall for Race To The Top Grant money.

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to build on state-level reforms aimed at closing the education achievement gap, the Education Department opened its Race to the Top competition to school districts on Sunday, inviting the poorest districts across the country to vie for almost $400 million in grants.

Following four months of public comment on a draft proposal, the Education Department unveiled its final criteria for the district-level competition, which will award 15 to 25 grants to districts that have at least 2,000 students and 40 percent or more who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches – a key poverty indicator.

Grants will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the size of the district.

"We want to help schools become engines of innovation through personalized learning so that every child in America can receive the world-class public education they deserve," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.

The original Race to the Top competition, announced in 2009, set out to provide more than $4 billion in grants to states that undertook ambitious education reforms. Dozens of states changed laws, introduced new teacher evaluation programs and lifted caps on charter schools to qualify for a slice of the funds.

Congress approved about $550 million for Race to the Top this year, and the Education Department expects to use about $383 million of it for grants to districts that propose ambitious reforms to personalize learning, narrow the achievement gap and prepare students for college. The rest will go toward the department's early learning competition.

School districts in states that received money in previous years will still be eligible to apply. Districts can propose programs that affect all or just some of their schools, and can also band together to apply for grants. Proposals geared to specific grades or subject areas also will be considered.

To be eligible, districts must put in place evaluation systems to measure performance of teachers, principals and superintendents by the 2014-2015 school year. The Education Department also planned initially to require school board evaluations and personalized learning plans for students, but officials said they eliminated both requirements based on public objections.

It remains to be seen whether the district-level competition will be alluring enough to entice districts to enact sweeping reforms, said Michael Petrilli, executive vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

"It seems that the response from the districts has been somewhat anemic, "Petrilli said. "Simply put, there's just much less money at stake than there was for the states."

School districts are expected to signal their intent to apply by the end of August, with applications due on Oct. 30. Districts will find out whether they've been selected for a grant by the end of the year.