Lampasas to get $100K grant
Posted On: Tuesday, Sep. 1 2009 02:02 AM
By Jackie Stone
Killeen Daily HeraldLAMPASAS – Mayor Judith Hetherly's scramble to get a grant application together in less than a month has paid off to the tune of $100,000 for a proposed higher education center in her city.
Hetherly said Monday she learned late last week that the state has approved the application she submitted to add Lampasas to a state pilot program of schools. High school students in the program can work toward a college degree while obtaining their high school diploma.
The Texas Department of Agriculture's Parallel Pathways to Success Program is designed to "offer rural high school students a more flexible education system," according to a TDA release calling for applicants.
Five grants were approved this year, out of "16 or 17" that were submitted, Hetherly said.
"It was great (getting the grant)," she said. "I think it's very, very important to have a university presence here. It's economically advantageous for the city, and it's certainly educationally advantageous for the students."
TDA put out a request for grant proposals in late July. Hetherly scrambled with the time crunch, but she managed to get the application finished by the Aug. 17 deadline.
The application lays out five pages of tightly worded plans and objectives for the Lampasas County Higher Education Center, a school offering area residents the chance to take vocational courses, as well as college courses concurrently with their high school workload.
"They're able to get the courses they need there, and it also provides higher education for those students that are from families that have never gone to college," she said.
Hetherly said the center offers something different from dual-credit programs and community colleges because it will allow high school students in all grades – not just juniors and seniors – to take college courses and potentially build up to an associate degree.
While she waited for a response from the state in the last two weeks, Hetherly gathered support from four entities that will put up matching funds and partner in the school's creation: the city of Lampasas, the Lampasas Economic Development Corp., the Lampasas Independent School District and Lampasas County.
In the plan laid out in the grant application, each of those four groups would put up the matching funds of $25,000 in 2010 and the same in 2011. After that, Hetherly said the school should be self-sustaining.
Central Texas College and the new Texas A&M University-Central Texas are among other partners listed in the project.
Now that the grant money has been approved, an advisory council will be created and a leader hired to head up marketing and other plans. Then there will be memorandums to put out and coursework to plan.
"There's a lot that has to take place between now and when we literally get the school up and going," Hetherly said.
The campus likely will be set up in Lampasas Middle School, left vacant when LISD added two new campuses and restructured the district. Hetherly said dual-credit courses should be available through the center in January. The other aspects of the program will be added as they are completed.
She said she hopes to have all aspects of the plan, including "early college, high school" designation, in place by 2013.