Manatee School Board Approves Application for "Race To The Top" Grant

BRADENTON -- At Monday’s meeting, the Manatee School Board approved an application that will once again put the county in a competition for a Race to the Top grant, where districts can receive millions of federal dollars for projects outlined in their application.

Dr. Diana Greene

The Manatee School District’s application would be focused on two areas, said Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Diana Greene: STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) initiatives “to ensure that we (eventually) have STEM labs in all of our elementary schools.” 

The second area of the application would be an individual learning path initiative, “where students have an opportunity to engage in mostly digital content based on their learning path,” or learning proficiency level, said Greene.  

Doug Wagner, Director of Adult, Career and Technical Education, who helped work on the grant, said that out of 900 applicants last year, Manatee finished 13 on the preliminary review by judges in the competition, and then fell to 22nd after a re-judging process. 

Wagner said that the district re-addressed the areas of last year’s application where they missed points in order to hopefully achieve a better score.

After discussion, the board approved the application for a grant unanimously.