By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

Morgan County school system administration submitted their Race to the Top grant application to the federal Department of Education (DOE) Monday.
An initiative of the DOE, Race to the Top began with state-level competitions of the same name and, earlier this year, the DOE opened up a separate competition for individual school districts. The U.S. government has set aside $550 million for Race to the Top; of that, the DOE expects to dole out $383 million as part of this district-level competition.
Awards are based on school districts' size and Morgan County falls into the $5 million to $10 million range.
The final copy of the application totals about 150 pages. The school system is requesting about $9.9 million for an initiative focusing on "innovative technology" to aid in the personalization of students' education, Assistant Superintendent Sarah Burbach said. The application also required districts to explicate how the initiative would continue after Race to the Top funding was exhausted, Burbach said.
Preparation of the application started in August.
There are about 900 other districts nationwide applying for Race to the Top funds.

Printed in the November 1 2012 edition.