KIPP Delta receives college-prep grant

The Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville has donated almost $500,000 to KIPP Delta Public Charter Schools for a two-year pilot program to prepare up to 350 high school students at Lee County High in Marianna and Central High in Helena-West Helena for college.

The partnership between KIPP Delta Public Schools and the two traditional high schools is a first in the Mississippi River Delta region, said Scott Shirey, executive director of the KIPP Delta Public Schools.

“But it is the essence of what charter schools are all about — providing new and promising opportunities to students,” he said.

Kathy Smith of the Walton Family Foundation said the organization is committed to improving school options and academic achievement.

“This partnership between KIPP and the two school districts represents the kind of bold new thinking that we must adopt in order to help students in the Delta reach their full potential,” Smith said.

The grant, spread over two years, will pay for two full-time college advisers as well as for costs that include college entrance exam fees, college campus visits and book purchases. The advisers will help individual students make post-high school plans, be it in the armed forces, vocational programs or college. They will help students register for college entrance exams, conduct parent meetings on higher education options, host college admission officer visits to the high schools, accompany students on college visits, and consult with school administrators on how to improve the college and career readiness of the students.

Shirey said KIPP Delta started the college support program five years ago and concluded that students who are supported can go to college and earn a degree.

“We look forward to sharing those lessons and providing support to our surrounding traditional public school systems by becoming a higher education resource for students and families,” he said.