The money is designed to reshape education with new programs and incentives, not to fill a budget gap. Currently, South Carolina lawmakers are considering cuts that will reduce the number of books for students and even the number of tests they can take because of a lack of money.

If selected South Carolina could get $300 million to pay for a variety of programs which includes drop out prevention, outfitting Montessori Schools, rechnological advances, teacher incentives to get them into more challenged and rural schools, and even building houses for teachers  among other things.

“These states are an example for the country of what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,” Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education, said.

The “Phase 1″ winners, who will share the $2 billion grant, will be announced next month. While it has been reported that South Carolina could get up to $300 million, the Department of Education program that is handing out the grants originally put South Carolina in category where $175 million was the maximum.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Citadel Cheerleading squad has set a “Pound Puppies Cheer Clinic” on Friday, Feb. 19, from 6-10 p.m. Participants ranging from ages 5-to-18 are encouraged to participate.

Courtesy: The Citadel www.citadelsports.com To register you place in the Cheer Clinic call 843-953-CHRS (2477)

The clinic will take place at Mark Clark Hall, located above the Gift Shop, on The Citadel’s campus. A $35 fee for all participants will include a t-shirt and snack.

All entries at the “Pound Puppies Cheer Clinic” will perform at The Citadel basketball game against UNC Greensboro on Saturday afternoon. Game time is set for 1 p.m. for a regionally televised contest on SportSouth (Comcast Cable 28).

To register your place in the Cheer Clinic call 843-953-CHRS (2477).

Fans can check out all the news about The Citadel Athletics at www.citadelsports.com.

Funds for K-12 programs are based on the student population in each county. Library funding is generally based on a formula set by the General Assembly. In 2009, lottery funds were first awarded to the South Carolina Charter School District.

According to the release, in the year that ended on June 30, 2009, more than 97 cents of every dollar spent on the South Carolina Education Lottery was returned to the state as educational contributions, prizes, retailer commissions and payments to contractors.

You can see how much money has gone to your county by going to www.sceducationlottery.com/educationwins/county.aspx. Just find and click on your county.

The program will provide training to teachers on how to identify the warning signs of domestic violence and how to respond when they suspect abuse.

Experts say students who are victims of violence will often become isolated from their friends or experience a drop in academic performance.

A $10,000 grant from Verizon Wireless will fund the project in five pilot school districts, including Greenville, Charleston, Aiken, Barnwell, and Allendale. Depending on the success of the program, it is expected to reach across South Carolina school districts through the 2010-11 school year.

Education Superintendent Jim Rex says teachers can play an important role in stopping domestic violence. Rex, who is also running for governor, says the program is needed because cases of domestic violence are rising.

Experts say children are present in a majority of domestic violence situations.

That’s the report from South Carolina Lawyers Weekly:

The two students each received $50,000, and two family members who filed the suits on their behalf received $25,000 apiece ….Title VI prohibits allowing a racially hostile educational environment in schools and programs receiving federal financial assistance and provides for a private cause of action for violations….

Both students were African-American, and so was most of the elementary school’s student body, according to [the students’ lawyer, Lawrence C.] Kobrovsky….

[The younger student] claimed she suffered emotional trauma because she was subjected to racial and sexual slurs at … elementary school … Despite complaints, school administrative staff and district officials allowed the abuse to “escalate to the point where [she] was physically threatened, assaulted and battered,” the suit alleged.

“You have a culture where to act like you want to do well in school is considered acting white. And that is part of why we’re saying that it was racial, even though the students were all of the same race because they weren’t acting how the others thought they should be acting as members of that race,” Kobrovsky said….

Spend a week or a few days – Get out of the Snow and Cold!!

This great home is still ready to be rented, and is pet friendly.

Southern Coast Management

** 1-800-978-4988**

Would love to have you, if you never visited the Grand Strand before, or haven’t been down South for awhile.  Come spend the Holidays with us, and you will be glad you did.  This time of the year is always welcoming, many attractions are opened, but without the high volume of traffic and waiting.

Calm, relaxing and very charming this time of year.  It is sunny with little to no breeze.  It is perfect wheather for walking  on the beach, or grabbing some bargains at the shops nearby.

Grab the leash and head south, you’ll be glad you did.

“We congratulate the administration for recognizing that the manual needed to change,” said Pat Schleisman, PE, regional director of Woodworks Southeast. “The previous policy was based on some long-standing misperceptions, but as Arkansas recognized last year when its prohibitive legislation was changed, wood offers a lot of benefits—especially to school districts trying to cope with decreasing budgets and increasing numbers of students. The reality is that wood schools can easily meet the same exacting standards for safety and service life as other materials, but provide much needed advantages related to cost, speed of construction, design flexibility, energy efficiency and sustainability.”

“Although heavy timber construction was already permitted, the Committee adopted the IBC language allowing wood for Type III and Type V Construction* with no significant amendments,” said Bryan Readling, PE, Senior Engineered Wood Specialist for APA – The Engineered Wood Association. “This change is great for school districts, which can now get more school for less money, and it’s also great for the South Carolina economy which is heavily dependent on forestry and wood manufacturing.” According to the South Carolina Forestry Association, 67% of the state is forested and the wood sector is the largest manufacturing employer.
In terms of cost savings, the following examples have been reported to APA for Arkansas schools originally designed in steel or concrete and converted to wood framing following the legislative change:

•Eldorado High School – 318,000 square feet
o Wood framing saved $20 per square foot for a total savings of
$6,360,000

• Newport Elementary School – 125,000 square feet
o Wood framing saved $21 per square foot for a total of
$2,625,000

• Fountain Lake Middle School – 48,000 square feet
o Wood framing saved $40 per square foot for a total savings of $1,920,000
(Note: bidding took place before steel prices dropped)
In addition to cost, a study released in 2007 by McGraw-Hill Construction found that the education sector was the fastest growing market for green building—an area where wood excels.

In addition to being the only major building material that’s renewable and sustainable, wood is the only material with third-party certification programs in place to verify that products being sold originate from a sustainably managed resource. North America has more certified forests than any other part of the world and, according to State of the World’s Forests reports published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, has as much forested land now as it did 100 years ago.

Independent life cycle assessment (LCA) studies show that wood is better for the environment than other materials in terms of embodied energy, air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and offers more efficient resource use. It’s also an important tool in the fight against climate change—because it continues to store the carbon absorbed during a tree’s growing cycle and because substituting wood for fossil fuel-intensive materials such as steel or concrete results in ‘avoided’ greenhouse gas emissions.

It was these and other benefits that helped convince the South Carolina Public School Facilities Committee to change the manual. “Wood schools offer excellent performance in earthquakes and high winds, so they’re common in California,” said Schleisman, who worked with APA and the South Carolina Forestry Association to demonstrate the advantages of wood schools. “We started this process by taking a delegation from the Southeast on a tour of California wood schools—to let people see for themselves the kind of warm and inviting learning environments that can be created while providing all of these other benefits.”

The tour was attended by architect Chris Voso, an advisor to the subcommittee evaluating the issue for the Office of School Facilities, who said it gave him an opportunity to see firsthand that wood is a viable option for schools. “When properly detailed and constructed, wood framed buildings give the school district a facility that meets all International Building Code requirements concerning life safety at the same time freeing up budget dollars to be used on needed educational spaces,” he said. “The decision to remove the restrictions on wood construction in schools gives the owner and architect another option for designing schools that meet today’s sustainable construction goals in a cost-effective way.”

For more information, visit woodworks.org to download the publication, “Designing Wood Schools” (http://www.woodworks.org/file/PD/publications/Wood_Schools.pdf).