Crane School District awarded $399,600 grant to fund school counselors

Crane Elementary School District #13 has been awarded the highly competitive School Safety Expansion Grant, which will provide over $399,600 to three schools.

The grant will allow Gary A. Knox, Pueblo Elementary and Salida del Sol to hire three full time counselors each for the next three school years.

Over 900 applications for this grant were submitted by both school districts and charter school organizations from across Arizona.

Based on the amount of available funding for this grant, the school safety team recommended 382 school positions to the State Board of Education.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, Kathy Hoffman released the following statement on the number of School Safety Program grant applicants, “One of the greatest Wins of the 2019 legislative session was the expansion of Arizona’s School Safety Program, which allocated $20 million of new finding for school counselors, social workers and school resource officers. After closing the grant application, our department has spent this past week conducting an initial review of the 900 applications submitted by 284 school districts and charter school organizations from across the state.”

Hoffman also noted that many applicants requested a combination of positions, including some part-time positions.

“The School Safety Program Expansion grant will allow Crane School District schools to maintain a visible presence, continuum of care and added support to the whole child beyond the academic scope with on-site dedicated school counselors for our three elementary schools.” Said superintendent Mrs. Laurie Doering.