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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
| State Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood |
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Youngblood announces $1.38 million grant for Grover Cleveland School
HARRISBURG, July 9 – State Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood, D-Phila., announced today the award of a $1.38 million federal School Improvement Grant to underwrite a new approach to education at Grover Cleveland School, which houses students from Head Start to eighth grade.
Youngblood said the competitive grant -- part of $6.9 million awarded to 10 schools through the Pennsylvania Department of Education -- will enable Grover Cleveland to implement a Restart Model, under which it can re-open as a charter school or be operated by an education management organization.
“This grant program seeks to give low-performing schools new and exciting options for improvement,” said Youngblood. “On behalf of those who have worked hard to secure this funding, with the goal of providing a brighter academic future for our students, I thank the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the federal government.”
Youngblood said that in an era of lean state funding for education -- including more than $1 billion in state subsidy cuts over the past two years, which has ravished local school budgets – the infusion of $1.38 million in federal funding is a godsend for any struggling school.
“We cannot overstate the impact that money like this will have,” said Youngblood. “It financially underwrites a shift in approach that otherwise could not take place. It funds a new direction at Grover Cleveland, one that hopefully will yield better test scores and graduation rates.”
Youngblood said that to qualify for the SIG grant, a school had to be among the lowest-performing schools in Pennsylvania that have failed to make substantial progress on state assessments or have a graduation rate of less than 60 percent in at least two of the last three years.
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