King County school districts bag $40M federal grant

A pack of King County school districts has won of slice of the federal government’s Race to The Top fund, worth $40 million dollars over four years. Seven districts applied for the grant together, as the Road Map District Consortium. They said they’ll use the money to beef up preschool programs, enrich science and math learning in the primary grades, and offer training and testing subsidies to high schools.

Dr. Susan Enfield is superintendent of the Highline School District, which will get a chunk of the money. She said the deep cuts over the last few years mean even a modest influx is a big deal.

“Any influx of resources is helpful. So it’s not like we each got $40 million for our district, it’s $40 million spread cross seven over four years. However, it may allow us free up monies that we’re already using for something to do something else. So that’s important,” Enfield said.

Other members of the winning coalition are Seattle, Renton, Kent, Tukwila, Federal Way and Auburn. The joint application was one of 16 selected for funding out of 372 applicants. This round of grants is the first dedicated to school districts and groups of districts. Previous awards have gone to states. Washington fell short in its first application for funding, but landed a grant in December of last year.