Moore and St. Bethlehem Win Grants

The Tennessee Department of Education announced the recipients of its Focus Grants, two of which have been awarded to Moore Magnet Elementary and St. Bethlehem Elementary School in CMCSS.  Each school will receive $200,000 over a two-year period.

CMCSS Chief Academic Officer Dr. Sean Impeartrice said: “Moore and St. Bethlehem’s faculty and staff have analyzed their data and completed the grant process in order to make an impact on student achievement and gap closures.  This was a competitive grant process and the state recognized both schools’ grant applications as highly credible and tied to best practices.  Each school spent countless hours exploring best practices and creating the grants in hopes of providing additional training, programming , and resources for their learning communities.”

Moore Magnet Elementary Principal Kim Smith said: “The faculty and staff of Moore Magnet are elated to be a recipient of the Tennessee Focus Grant.  As STEM becomes a cornerstone of the 21^st century classroom education and Common Core State Standards are implemented, we recognize that this grant will provide the critical resources necessary to help all our students reach their educational potential.”

St. Bethlehem Elementary Principal Tracy Hodges said: “The faculty and staff at St. Bethlehem are dedicated to the success of our students. Their continual efforts were demonstrated in our TCAP achievement scores which demonstrated strong gains among all students and across all content areas. The award of the Focus Schools Competitive Grant will allow us to continue with this work but also be more intentional in closing the achievement gap among subgroups through the purchase of resources and professional development aligned to the specific needs of our student population. I am confident that our continued collaborative efforts will prove successful.”