Grant's spending satisfies officials

There was never a plan to put the money directly into educational programming.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The president and chief executive officer of the Regional Chamber said a $585,280 federal Educational Initiative grant is being spent exactly as proposed in the grant application.
Thomas Humphries said the bulk of the money for the Mahoning Valley Educational Initiative is earmarked for an intensive marketing campaign known as "From Steel to Scholars" to focus the community's attention on the need to improve the quality of existing K-12 education and the need for post-secondary education and training to succeed in today's economy.
That's where most of the money is being spent, he said.
There was never any intent to pour the grant money strictly into educational programming, he said.
The U.S. Department of Education is providing the funding for the two-year effort, which was officially launched earlier this year, and had no qualms about how the money would be spent, Humphries said.
Spending details
A breakdown shows a total of $362,624 being spent on the marketing effort and $109,000 on salaries and benefits for three chamber employees and a coordinator of a proposed Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medical Careers Academy.
Humphries said the bulk of the money is to be spent within the first year, and more than one-third of it has been spent thus far.
Many parents don't attend school functions and aren't aware of what they can do to become engaged in the educational process, he said. Reaching them through an intensive campaign of radio, television and print advertisements is the best way to do that, he said, adding that a second wave of advertisements will be launched just before students take the state achievement tests in March.
Careers academy
The STEMM Careers Academy isn't in place yet.
Youngstown State University and the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine are coordinating that effort, Humphries said.
Dr. Cynthia Hirtzel, dean of the Rayen College of Engineering and Technology at YSU, said she is satisfied that the grant money is being spent properly.
It may be next fall before the Careers Academy is ready to begin recruiting about two dozen minority high school students who show an interest in pursuing engineering, math or the medical field as a career, she said.
The academy will offer summer camps and monthly events during the year for those students, she said.
Those students would be eligible for training stipends.
Although funding for the effort is relatively new, the community has been working on this initiative for four years, Humphries said.
There are already measurable improvements, he said, pointing out that 29 of the 45 public school districts in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties were rated as effective or excellent in the last Ohio Report Card academic report.
That's 64 percent, he said, noting that less than 50 percent achieved those categories in the previous year.
gwin@vindy.com