From Staff, Press Reports

The Appalachian Regional Commission is investing $275,000 to help students in Webster County develop high-tech job skills and connect with higher education.

The funding is part of a $2 million grant to the Mississippi Department of Education that will let schools in the ARC's 12 distressed counties in the state access the new high school redesign program. Those counties include Webster.

Gov. Haley Barbour and ARC co-chairwoman Anne Pope handed out the big checks Oct. 23 in Tupelo.

The presentation happened during the ARC's annual conference. Some 250 business, government and education leaders from the 13-state region met to talk about their efforts in workforce development and training.

Barbour said workforce training and development is undervalued.

"If employers are going to be competitive in a world economy, you're going to need to educate and train the employees," he said.

ARC has been at the forefront of workforce training and development, Pope said, shortly before the announcement of the ARC grant.

According to the MDE's website, the grant amount for the Webster County School District is $275,856.38. The state Board of Education was to approve the grant awards for Webster and 15 other school districts when it met Friday.

Establishing a project that the ARC calls Enhancing Workforce Training Programs, the funds will buy equipment to update career-technical education programs. The goal of the high school redesign is to prepare students the 21st century workplace as well as higher education.

The high school redesign program, which started as a pilot program two years ago, had been out of reach for many of the distressed counties.

The state will put up $500,000. The ARC also announced a $339,000 grant to Mississippi State University so it can serve as the seat of EWTP to coordinate workforce aid programs for area high schools.

The College Accessibility Program will focus on getting students to see the possibilities in higher education. Programs could include campus visits, field trips to see college grads at work and mentoring.

"The communities are going to work as a team to figure out what's best for them," said Julie B. Jordan, project manager for the Mississippi State Community Action Team. She is working on the program alongside LaNell Kellum, senior research associate at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government.

Sources: The Associated Press, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Starkville Daily News and Mississippi Department of Education.