Most schools use grants to fund special courses or training for students and teachers, and Durant Public School is no exception. Three of Durant School's personnel spoke about grants that were recently applied for through Carl Perkins funding at the August meeting of the Durant Board of Education.

Greg Howse, Safe Schools director, had written a grant to create Durant Summer Bridge, a program to help at-risk middle school students transition into high school life easier.

The summer bridge program is a four-hour a day, four week program based on service learning. The day will be broken into two hours focusing on algebra and reading, and two hours working on a service learning project, which will be designing a new high school.

Howse said he chose that project because the Durant School system is currently interested in building a new high school, and input from the students could prove valuable. The students will be creating blue prints, providing cost estimates and submitting written proposals, among other things.

The school received the $25,000 grant, and the Durant Summer Bridge program will be implement during the 2008 summer.

Cheryl Conditt, counselor at Durant High School, applied for a Check and Connect grant, which will allow the school to hire one person whose job will be to aid in the attendance of at-risk students.

The person will check the attendance of at-risk students, and if the student is listed as absent, will check the schedules and his or her classroom. If no one has called in for the individual, then that person will call the student's parents to see if there is a reason the student is absent.

Conditt said that person will act as a resource officer to the school, and make a positive connection with the family. He or she will also make sure the student is taking classes to enable the student to graduate, as well a monitor the students' grades.

The school received a $20,000 1-year grant for this project.

Steve Wlodarczyk, principal of the Durant High School, has also applied for a grant under Carl Perkins funding, but is waiting on its approval.

He applied for a grant for mentoring underrepresented students. He believes this mentoring program will allow students who are capable of making the grades but are not reaching their full potential to bond with upperclassmen, thereby making the social, as well as educational, side of school easier.

He plans to begin a ninth-grade academy with between 15-20 students. These students will remain together for the core classes, providing personalized education.

Seniors will be mentoring the ninth-grade students as well, and Wlodarczyk will provide time, such as lunch, when the students will be able to bond. The bonding will allow students to build relationships, which will enable them to reach their full potential, according to Wlodarczyk.

If approved, the grant will be for $7,500.