School grant will bolster collaboration

A $10 million federal Race to the Top grant will promote opportunities to collaborate and leverage partnerships, a trio from the Carson City School District told the Carson City Board of Supervisors on Thursday.The grant prompted the school district to contact The Parthenon Group and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which include philanthropists Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, supervisors were told.Associate Superintendent Sue Keema, Steve Pradere of Grants and Special Projects, and Brian Wallace, teacher and president of the Ormsby County Education Association, made the presentation.Pradere and Wallace said the program emanating from the grant will be teacher-driven and learning-centric. Wallace called the program a true collaboration.“It really, truly is a ‘We’,” he said. “It’s not a top-down process.”The board also was told an electronic portfolio for students would help them decide about options such as agriculture, business, consumer and family science, health, information technology or trade and industry.