United Way donates to school welding program
GRAVETTE — Kim Johnson, community impact manager at United Way of Northwest Arkansas, visited the Gravette public school administration building Monday of last week to deliver welcome news to school officials. The new welding program at Gravette High School has been selected to receive $12,000 from United Way.
Because of United Way’s concern about the number of children living in poverty in the area, a Children Living in Poverty Summit was held in 2015, and resources were gathered to start investing in area communities. One in four children in the area live in poverty and, since about 50 percent of Gravette students are eligible for free and reduced price lunches, they were eligible to receive some of the First Step Funding.
Johnson said that initially 79 proposals for projects were received from 57 agencies requesting $5.6 million in funding. Members of United Way’s selection committee narrowed those down and selected 26 proposals, totaling $1.3 million in requests, to move forward this cycle. These projects were reviewed and ranked. Then the decision was made as to who would receive the funds.
Richard Page, superintendent of schools; Jay Chalk, high school principal; and school board members Susan Santos and John Edwards were all on hand for the funding announcement. Chalk spoke briefly, thanking the administration and school board for their support of the vocational education program at GHS. He noted that students from Bentonville and Gentry were also enrolled in the welding program, so it would benefit not just Gravette students but other area students as well.