Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

Funding for the school system’s new Innovation Grant program was approved by the Coffee County School Board at their meeting on Nov. 10.

The grants were discussed at the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Innovation Committee. Anyone who works in the school system can submit a grant application for up to $2,500 to fund innovative ideas in the school system.

As explained by Excellence Program Director and Innovation Committee member Tonya Garner, the focus of the grants is to support creative ideas that improve educational outcomes for students.

She also noted that proposals may focus on academics, mentoring, mental health, behavior improvement, extracurricular activities or the arts.

“We’re just looking for innovative, out-of-the-box things,” she said.

Garner also explained that the Board will decide whether the Innovation Committee will decide who is awarded the grants or if the full Board does. She said that the hope is to have the grants available after winter break.

The initial funding proposed by the committee for the grants was $50,000 that would come from the schools’ Fund Balance. Board member Beth Yentsch made a motion to approve the funding and Board member Gary Cordell seconded.

Director of Schools and Innovation Committee Chairman Scott Hargrove said that the grants will fund programs outside of the classroom that will “grow our children.”

“It may be in Fine Arts. It may be in music, or it may be in agriculture,” he said. “It’s providing our children learning activities that occur outside the classroom that can help them in their life.”

Yentsch commented that she recalled from the first committee meeting that the hope was to start programs in one or two classrooms, and then if they are successful, they’ll multiply into other classrooms as well.

Hargrove said that the hope would be to eventually fund the Innovation Grants with other grants.

Hargrove also noted that, due to some grants that were given by the Sportsman’s and Businessman’s Charitable Organization to several teachers totaling close to $25,000, he wasn’t sure if the entire $50,000 would be used, but that he hopes that it is.

“It means we’re serving kids,” he said.

Board member Freda Jones said that she hopes that some of the Innovation Grants would be used to improve scores, specifically for eighth grade math and ELA that were mentioned earlier in the meeting, that have remained unchanged in recent years.

Yentsch noted that one of her concerns in the initial meeting of the Innovation Committee was tying the grants too firmly to goals that need to be met. She expressed how that strategy may “kill some of the innovation.”

“The purpose of this is to allow teachers to think outside of the box and not always have to stay inside the box with what they do with their lesson plan because everything can’t be measured that the kids learn inside a box,” she said. “We wouldn’t have brought art into the schools if that was the case.”

“There are things that the kids need to learn that the teachers need the chance to say ‘I’ve got this fabulous idea. I think it’ll add to this particular goal, but I think it’s a fabulous idea, and I want a chance to try it,’” she continued. “I don’t want to see it so rigid that we leave out a lot of creative ideas.”

Jones responded that her point was not for the process to be too rigid.

“My point would be to come up with innovative ways to change the future of those eight grade math students and ELA,” she said. “You can come up with innovative things, and that’s what we need to do instead of just the same old drill.”

Hargrove offered that sometimes it’s extracurriculars that spark something in students.

“Sometimes it’s the things that you’re not accustomed to learning about that gets you excited about learning about the things that aren’t so bells and whistle and exciting that we are being measured on,” he explained. “It’s just about the hook and the love of learning.”

The motion passed unanimously 9-0.

A vote was also made to combine the Innovation Committee with the After School Program Committee since the two groups would have a lot of overlap in what they cover.

The move would place Board members Jennifer Peacock Hodge and Holly Matthews on the Innovation Committee and dissolve the After School Program Committee entirely.

That motion passed 8-0 after Board member Robert Gilley temporarily stepped out of the board room.