WBOY.com: Clarksburg, Morgantown: News, Sports, WeatherNMHS Receives $300,000 Drop-Out Prevention Grant

NMHS Receives $300,000 Drop-Out Prevention Grant

The West Virginia Board of Education has awarded a $300,000 drop out prevention grant to North Marion High School.

North Marion is one of the only schools in the region that's been awarded Innovation Zone grant money.

Principal Rusty DeVito said she is proud of the hard work done by her students and faculty.

Teachers said the money has given them endless possibilities to get students excited about education.

The high school has taken on a more non-traditional way of teaching its students through Project Based Learning.

"We want our teachers to break out of the box of the text book and we want them to start designing lessons that are engaging children and relevant to their daily lives," said science teacher Joetta Schneider.

Schneider was part of a team of teachers who wrote the grant.

She said the $300,000 will be spread out over the next three and a half years.

It will go towards four key areas to help improve the drop-out rate including community connections and involvement, developing engaging lessons and classes for students, mentoring and tutoring opportunities, and providing access to technology.

"Part of the drop out prevention grant is going to go to sustained tutoring and any kind of after school help the students' needs," said math teacher Andrea Neptune.

NMHS will continue to use Project Based Learning that it launched with its Innovation Zone last year. Teachers said students have responded to hands-on learning as opposed to reading from a text book.

Teachers have traded in their blackboards for iPad and computers. The switch is something students have responded positively to.

North Marion will also expand its curriculum and add new classes and opportunities for students that they can't find anywhere else in the student.

"We're combining classes to create new electives so that teachers can collaborate and offer the best of their skills to the students," said English teacher Joy Gaines.

Gaines said they plan to invite students to future curriculum council meetings and hear what kinds of courses they would like to see offered.

The next three years will be full of changes to keep students engaged and interested in learning.