To:

Members, Board of Education

From:

Maurice O. Green, Superintendent
Shirley Morrison, Chief Human Resources Officer
Amy Holcombe, Executive Director of Talent Development

Date:

May 6, 2011

RE:

Transition to Teaching Grant Approval

In 2009, Guilford County Schools was awarded a Transition to Teaching (T3) federal grant in the amount of $2.2 million dollars.  To date, funds have enabled us the opportunity to support the Guilford County Schools Alternative Certification Program (GCS-ACT) which will have graduated almost 100 highly qualified teachers by the end of this school year.  The majority of our program graduates are teaching in our hardest to staff schools and are filling positions for which there exists a shortage of traditionally licensed applicants.

On April 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Education hosted a pre-application grant meeting to announce the release of $12.6 million in federal funding to support additional Transition to Teaching (T3) projects.  As a current grantee, Guilford County Schools is eligible to apply for a second grant to support the expansion of the GCS-ACT program services.

The grant application deadline is May 27, 2011. Given the short time between this board meeting and May 27th, staff has begun working on the application in anticipation of the board’s consideration of it. To date, staff has prepared an executive summary of the grant application, which is attached. Staff anticipates completion of the full application just prior to the application deadline. The staff will provide the board with the opportunity to review the entire application once it is developed.

RECOMMENDATION:  Administration recommends that the Board of Education support the development and submission of the Transition to Teaching grant application.

Attachment

Executive Summary