Langston Chapel receives $349K state grant

105 at-risk children to receive expanded after school & summer services for five years

LCES has received more than $5.4 million in grant funds for at-risk students in the past 14 years

Langston Chapel Elementary School will receive a $349,000 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grant award for Fiscal Year 2020 to serve 105 at-risk children in grades K-5 with expanded after school and summer learning and enrichment programs. The Bulloch County Board of Education approved unanimously to accept the grant at its Aug. 8 regular session after a proposal from Catherine Hendrix, director of the Bulloch County Commission on Human Services, who serves as the local 21st CCLC grant administrator.

Hendrix made the proposal based on approval by the State Board of Education to allocate the funds to the school district for Langston Chapel Elementary. This will be the first year of the five-year grant. Hendrix has facilitated obtaining more than $12.36 million in 21st CCLC grants for the school system over the past 14 years, more than $5.4 million of those funds for Langston Chapel Elementary School alone.

Langston has the school district’s highest percent of students who are economically disadvantaged, the highest percent of minority students, and the highest percent of students whose native language is not English. For more than 10 years, the school has received 21st CCLC grants to support classroom instruction.

The targeted group of 105 students will now receive 29 weeks of free after school programming that offers them academic remediation, skill building and acceleration in English language arts, reading and mathematics. The children will also receive innovative enrichment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), social and emotional learning, and physical well-being skills that are consistent with academic success. Their parents will also have engagement sessions to help provide them the knowledge and skills to best support their child’s academic and social well-being.

During the summer the children will receive four weeks with a total of 160 hours of programming that includes academic enrichment to prevent learning loss, STEM, project-based learning, social and emotional learning, leadership, career exploration, physical wellness, fine arts, and culture.

The funding is authorized under Title IV, Part B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act contingent upon successful implementation of the grant and continued availability of federal funds for each of the five fiscal years of the award.  The intended outcomes of the grant are to improve the targeted students’ academic achievement and behavior and increase engagement between their families and the school’s faculty and administrators.