The Appalachian Regional Commission awards grants and contracts from funds appropriated to the commission annually by Congress.
Program grants are awarded to state and local agencies, governmental entities and non-profit organizations. The $110,000 grant to Franklin County Schools was administered through the State of Alabama.
Gov. Kay Ivey's office notified Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow (D-Red Bay) on July 9 that the grant had been awarded.
“I am happy to have helped in securing these badly needed funds for the school children of the Franklin County School System,” Morrow said.
Franklin County superintendent of education Greg Hamilton said the ARC funds were a reimbursement grant that will reimburse his system for the purchase of 360 Chrome books. Chrome books are laptop computers that operate with Chrome OS, rather than Windows10 or macOS. The machines are designed to work while connected to the Internet, as many applications and programs are located in the cloud.
Dr. Susan Hargett wrote the technology grant for Franklin County Schools, and Jessica Hamilton (technology instructional teacher for the system) will be in charge of purchasing the Chrome books.
Each of the system's eight schools will receive 30 Chrome books, and the remaining 120 will be used to fill in where needed. The cost of the Chrome books includes charging carts and the necessary licensing and software, Greg Hamilton said.
“This is an ongoing project. We already have Chrome books in our schools thanks to a $25,000 middle school grant from the Alabama Department of Education,” Hamilton said. “Franklin County and Muscle Shoals City Schools were the only two local systems to receive that grant last year.”
Hamilton said the ARC grant is another way for the system to incorporate technology into the classroom.
“That is so important in a variety of ways," Hamilton said. "We want to thank Susan Hargett for working to write this grant. We will see the benefits of this for years to come."
