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School district receive grants for family literacy
By KOSAKU NARIOKA
The Deer Park Independent School District once again became the recipient of the Even Start Family Literacy Grant. The grant program, according to Texas Education Agency, aims to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of low-income families by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy or adult basic education and parenting education into a unified family literacy program.
The district is the recipient of the grant for the next four years with the maximum expected amount of $150,000 per year, said Jenny Martinez, family literacy coordinator at the district’s Early Childhood Center.
ECC Principal Pam McLean said Deer Park is one of the 14 schools and districts to receive the grant.
From the greater Houston area, Channelview ISD and Houston ISD’s Sutton Elementary School also became recipients, according to TEA.
Martinez said the district had been awarded $200,000 annually, but the funding ended last August. The school district itself funded the family literacy program last year.
McLean said the state agency decided that the school districts and the programs were “not being held accountable enough” and it cut the Even Start funding although Deer Park school district was commended by The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative for Texas last year on spending the grant and assisting the family as the district planed to do.
The family literacy program coordinator said she believes the TEA chose “the highest ranking programs among all applicants” to use them as models for the following years to bring the funding back.
The district’s family literacy program is designed to help adult parents and teen parents become full partners in their children’s education by providing literacy training, parenting classes and early childhood instruction so that the entire family can reach their full potential as learners, teachers and active community members, according to its Web site.
Martinez said the program started compiling the community resources calendar which was distributed to each and every student to advertise available assistants for basic needs in families in the district.
The program also received a $50,000 family literacy grant last year that helped it pay for early childhood specialist, educational materials and some computers for adult students in the parenting room, she said.
This year it received a $10,000 Dollar General Family Literacy Grant which enabled it to buy additional three computers and a printer.
The program, in collaboration with the social work department, also applied for the Full-Service Community Schools grant from the U.S. department of education, which could potentially brings the district $500,000 a year for five years.
The district is the recipient of the grant for the next four years with the maximum expected amount of $150,000 per year, said Jenny Martinez, family literacy coordinator at the district’s Early Childhood Center.
ECC Principal Pam McLean said Deer Park is one of the 14 schools and districts to receive the grant.
From the greater Houston area, Channelview ISD and Houston ISD’s Sutton Elementary School also became recipients, according to TEA.
Martinez said the district had been awarded $200,000 annually, but the funding ended last August. The school district itself funded the family literacy program last year.
McLean said the state agency decided that the school districts and the programs were “not being held accountable enough” and it cut the Even Start funding although Deer Park school district was commended by The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative for Texas last year on spending the grant and assisting the family as the district planed to do.
The family literacy program coordinator said she believes the TEA chose “the highest ranking programs among all applicants” to use them as models for the following years to bring the funding back.
The district’s family literacy program is designed to help adult parents and teen parents become full partners in their children’s education by providing literacy training, parenting classes and early childhood instruction so that the entire family can reach their full potential as learners, teachers and active community members, according to its Web site.
Martinez said the program started compiling the community resources calendar which was distributed to each and every student to advertise available assistants for basic needs in families in the district.
The program also received a $50,000 family literacy grant last year that helped it pay for early childhood specialist, educational materials and some computers for adult students in the parenting room, she said.
This year it received a $10,000 Dollar General Family Literacy Grant which enabled it to buy additional three computers and a printer.
The program, in collaboration with the social work department, also applied for the Full-Service Community Schools grant from the U.S. department of education, which could potentially brings the district $500,000 a year for five years.
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