Jamestown High and Lafayette High will soon be joining Warhill High as Williamsburg-James City County schools that have received high school innovation planning grants.
In June 2015, Warhill was the recipient of a $50,000 grant from the state’s Standards of Learning Innovation Committee. The funds were used to create the Pathways Project, which gives Warhill students a chance to “design their own paths to success.”
Students in the Pathways Project select a “career cluster” that matches their interests and complete coursework – at their own pace and for graduation credits –that will allow them to achieve their goals after high school.
Last week, the Virginia Department of Education announced WJCC Schools will receive an additional $50,000 in funding for similar programs to be developed at Lafayette and Jamestown. Bedford County, Hampton, Madison County and Virginia Beach were also awarded $50,000 grants.
According to a news release from the Virginia Department of Education, the grants for WJCC would allow Jamestown and Lafayette students to “develop individualized learning plans emphasizing communication, collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking and authentic learning experiences.”
“In order to build the workforce of the future, we must ensure that we are preparing all of our students to succeed in the new Virginia economy,” Governor Terry McAuliffe said in a news release. “With this second round of high school innovation grants, we are not only taking another positive step in that direction, we are also supporting the bold ideas of our education leaders and changing high school as we know it.”
