Rural schools to see $400,000 dollars for college transition funding

Five school districts in Whitman County are among a group of Eastern Washington districts recently selected to receive a portion of a $400,000 grant every year for the next five years.

The College Access and Awareness grant gives 35 rural school districts in Eastern Washington funding to help rural students negotiate the leap from rural schooling to university life. The $400,000 will be divided among those 35 districts.

Colfax, Tekoa, Rosalia, Oakesdale and LaCrosse are the Whitman districts to receive some of the funding, which was awarded by the state’s Higher Education Coordination Board this fall.

Colfax Supt. Michael Morgan said he was particularly excited about the grant because it has the potential to guide more Colfax students into college.

“A lot of the funding is going to be utilizing career counselors and college counselors to prepare kids for their career objective,” Morgan said.

A consortium of 42 rural school districts in Eastern Washington was formed last July, called the Rural Alliance Coalition.

Thirty-five of those districts opted to put in for the grant when it was offered this fall.

The rest of the districts opted out, said Kevin Jacka, superintendent of the Mary Walker school district in Springdale.

The Mary Walker district led the effort to form the alliance and also filled out the paperwork for the grant, along with Educational Service District 101.

Helping students survive a rough transition into university life was the main reason they formed the alliance, Jacka added.

“We’re seeing more issues with keeping our students in college. You go off and leave a high school of 180 and go to a college of 10,000,” Jacka said.

He believes many students from rural school districts see an abrupt change in lifestyle and pace when they switch to university life.

The funds pay for districts to build their own college and career centers. It boosts training for districts’ existing college guidance counselors and training for staff in districts who do not have college guidance counselors.

A regional college guidance counselor may also be paid for through the grant, Jacka said.

The $400,000 grant will be divided among districts in equal portions regardless of the size of the district, Jacka said.

The distribution will include a share to ESD 101 for administering the grant program.