Mary Alice Reporting – Over $233,000 is coming to nine Tuscarawas County school districts to provide safer and healthier learning environments.

Governor Mike DeWine announced $33.3 million being awarded to more than 700 districts across Ohio for the Stronger Connections Grant received and for the Tier 1 or Tier 2 award, it was based on health and safety factors, including rates of poverty, chronic absenteeism, and exclusionary discipline.  Some districts were also granted a Tier 3 amount.

Getting money for all tiers was Dover City School and Indian Valley Local.

For Dover, there total allotment is $76,428, and Superintendent Kari McCrate says this will put systems in place to meet some goals in their strategic plan.

“Things like really digging deep into challenging student behaviors and risk factors and looking at models that could support positive behavior among students that might include software, signage, training of staff, [or] resources for staff.”

As for Indian Valley, Superintendent Ira Wentworth says they are getting a total of $46,407 and the majority will go toward security camera software advancements.

“We have fairly high quality security cameras but on the backend of that, the software to run those and to make sure they’re functioning at their highest capacity needs upgraded every so often and that’s a big dollar amount.”

Wentworth adds that remaining dollars will be allocated for anti-vaping messages targeted toward youth.

School District Award Amounts:

Claymont: Total – $25,306.50

Conotton: Total – $5,000

Dover: Total – $76,428.05 (Tier 1 and 2: $9,428.05 & Tier 3: $67,000)

Fairless: Total – $18,480.37

Garaway: Total – $9,822.76

Indians Valley: Total – $46,407.87 (Tier 1 and 2: $11,407.87 & Tier 3: $35,000)

New Philadelphia: Total – $31,867.46

Ridgewood: Total – $15,188.38

Tusky Valley: Total – $5,236.32

Copyright WTUZ Radio Inc., 2023