Jackson Schools Receive GEAR UP Grant

Jackson County Schools received a seven-year grant from the US Department of Education designed to better prepare students for postsecondary education.

Director of Schools Jason Hardy said the GEAR UP grant will help the district partner with the local community and parents to improve college readiness. Hardy said the grant will pay for community events, tutors and ACT prep programs. Two new GEAR UP coordinators who will work directly with students.

“We will begin in January of 2025,” Hardy said. “So just a few short months. And we will start with the seventh grade cohort that’s at our middle schools at Dodson Branch and Jackson County Middle Schools and they’ll start working with them. And then the following year they will also work with that cohort along with every senior class each year.”

Hardy said they will also work to create additional resources to help students in between the senior class and the seventh grade cohort. He said the program is designed to prepare students for any kind of higher education including two-year, four-year, technical, or trade schools.

“(It is a) really good program that helps especially rural kids or kids that might not have the exposure to what all is available out there in the world after high school,” Hardy said. “It just gives them opportunities to enhance that and to get that information from an early age. And that’ll follow them all the way through until they’re seniors.”

Hardy said postsecondary education usually has a strong impact on the student’s success in life regardless of what kind of school they go to.

“We have different students that have different plans,” Hardy said. “But we do think, whatever their goal is, if they have some type of postsecondary education that that will enhance what their plans are.”

Hardy said they have worked with the GEAR UP program in the past and had already determined that they classify as a rural school system that needs to increase its college-going rate.

“They kind of contacted us and we went together with them through an application process,” Hardy said. “And when Tennessee gained the award, Jackson County was a part of that award so (we) feel very grateful to be included.”