Derby High School Receives $10,000 Grant

A new grant will help Derby High School students catch up on courses that they missed or failed earlier in their high school years.

A representative from the AT&T Foundation met school officials in the Derby High School library Friday (Aug. 30) to present a $10,000 check.

Derby High School Principal Greg Gaillard said the matching grant will offset costs for the purchase of Edgenuity software, which connects students to online courses allowing them to make up credit they lost by failing or receiving an incomplete.

“It’s a way to recover credit in an efficient way,” he said.

Gaillard said it is difficult for students to make up lost course credit, and that is a major reason that students drop out.

Derby Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway said the school system reviewed several computer programs and selected Edgenuity as the best for Derby High School.

He said the school district will provide $10,000 in matching contributions from the state’s Alliance Program grant, which the city receives to fund education resources aimed at closing the achievement gap, the disparity in average academic performance between low-income students and those from more affluent families.

Gaillard said Edgenuity has additional benefits for Derby High School, as well. The software will allow students take courses that they otherwise couldn’t because of a course schedule conflict, for instance.

And it will also allow the school to offer courses, including Advanced Placement courses, that Derby High couldn’t offer in the past, he said.

Helping keep students in school through graduation is a major purpose for the grant, according to Kelly Wade Bettuchi, AT&T’s Director for External and Legislative Affairs in Connecticut.

“That relates to workforce development, and making sure we have a workforce tomorrow,” Bettuchi said.

Also on hand Friday were state Rep. Themis Klarides, R-114, who represents Derby, Orange and Woodbridge in the state’s General Assembly, and Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri.

Klarides and Bettuchi knew each other from the AT&T executive’s lobbying work in Hartford. When the state representative heard that the Derby school system was looking for a grant to buy the Edgenuity software, she made the connection with Bettuchi, who said Derby High School’s objectives match well with the AT&T Foundation’s ASPIRE program.

Through ASPIRE, the company will distribute $350 million in grants across the country to support programs designed to cut high school dropout rates.

“That was exactly the type of thing that we’re trying to target,” said Bettuchi.

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