(Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series on the Allen County schools’ pursuit of U.S. Cellular’s grant contest.)
Allen County schools teaming up to compete for U.S. Cellular’s Calling All Communities million dollar grant giveaway saw their fast start fade this week.
Last week, just days into the nationwide contest where U.S. Cellular will donate $150,000 to one American school or team of schools receiving the most online votes, which began Sept. 9, the three-district team was thirteenth in the vote total. The communications company also will donate $50,000 to the next 17 top vote-getters.
But during the last seven days, USD 256, 257 and 258 have seen their rank slip to nineteenth out of the 1,544 schools that have received votes, which means if the contest ended today, not one penny of the U.S. Cellular’s $1 million worth of grant funds would end up in Allen County schools.
With three weeks left in the competition and only one place out of a money spot, Iola’s U.S. Cellular store manager Lori Perches said there’s no need to panic — nineteenth place is toward the top — but stressed the importance of continued voting.
“Everything changes in a matter of days, which is really encouraging,” she said. “People in the top 10 can go down and people in the bottom can go up.”
A stipulation of voting for Iola Middle School, and subsequently all Allen County schools, is voters must first stop into any U.S. Cellular retail location to pick up a registration card, of which U.S. Cellular’s Iola store has already distributed around 900.
With all three county school districts working together to secure the no-strings attached funds, the community residents should reward the teamwork with as much enthusiasm as they can muster, Perches said.
“At this point, all of the communities’ hard work will not bring in any money so we want to keep people voting every day and keep them driving in their friends and family to pick up the cards.”
Echoing Perches sentiments was David Toland, executive director of Thrive Allen County, an organization dedicated to fostering county-wide unity.
“It’s not that we aren’t doing a good job, it’s that other communities are doing a better job,” he said. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, however it’s not enough and we need to keep up the pressure and find the folks that haven’t participated yet and get them engaged to vote every single day.”
USD 258 Superintendent of Schools K.B. Criss said his district has done just about everything possible to get people involved with the competition — using Facebook, the district website, emails and the school phone system — but it’s up to the voters to stay resilient and vote every day.
“We did everything possible to get people in the know, but it’s still hard to get to everybody,” he said. “We’re just trying to do what we can to get the word out, but for us to win, people have to stay persistent in their voting.”
If the three-district team is able to move into one of the top 18 spots and hold the position until the contest deadline, Criss said the grant dollars will be invested in technology upgrades and maintenance.
Having received funds during the last decade to enrich technology in Humboldt classrooms, much of the equipment — laptop computers, electronic projectors and voice amplifiers — purchased is aging, Criss said.
“Technology ages very quickly. As that equipment gets older, it’s even more important that it’s maintained, upgraded and replaced,” he said. “That money can help with that task.”
USD 258 administrators are also contemplating using the potential U.S. Cellular dollars to purchase iPads and an electronic cart to facilitate learning in the classrooms — particularly chemistry.
“In the science curriculum, they have all those interactive table of elements applications … to get kids engaged,” he said. “We’re hoping that will open the way to go paperless.”
Because U.S. Cellular’s lone Allen County retail office lies within Iola city limits, Toland said if people are struggling to find transportation to the store, they should contact Thrive at 365-8128 and arrangements can be made to accommodate them. The store is at 704 N. State St.
Schools slip from top spots
