TONTOGANY – Four Wood County school districts
will be among seven to share in a $855,000 state grant to improve technology use in the classroom.The grant
was celebrated this morning with an event held in the Otsego Schools auditorium.“I’m here just to
congratulate and celebrate,” said Ohio Schools Superintendent Richard Ross, during his remarks.Otsego,
Perrysburg, Eastwood, Rossford, Springfield, Maumee and Anthony Wayne districts filed a joint application to
the state’s Straight A Innovation Fund for a grant to replace traditional textbooks with electronic
resources that the districts will design jointly.The Ohio Controlling Board met Monday afternoon and
approved the application by a unanimous vote.The grant amounts to a total of $855,583.“This is a customized
proposal that’s been brought by the folks in these school districts,” said Ross.“It was a great team
effort,” said Otsego Superintendent Adam Koch, noting that the schools will work with Bowling Green State
University as well as the Lake Erie West Educational Service Center on the project.It is expected to be
rolled out in August, Koch said.“We’re looking forward to working together,” said Perrysburg Superintendent
Tom Hosler.“Most important, we’re excited for the students.”In the project, the districts will produce a
digital content collection for grades 9 through 12 that will replace hardcopy textbooks.The content
collection is expected to include a variety of media and model a 21st-century style of teaching and
learning.“It takes hard-working teachers and school leaders like you have here, to envision something
different,” said Ross.“The chore you have, other than being successful… is the communication beyond your
collaborative across this state,” and beyond, to share what they created and learned in the process.The
ultimate goal of the project, Ross said, is to increase student learning and prepare them for college and
the 21st-century workplace, which will increasingly make use of technology.BGSU will also work with
Groveport Madison Local Schools on a $1.8 million for the Electronic Literacy Through Internet-Supported
Strategies for Instruction initiative to help teachers better utilize technology in the classroom and with
Oregon City Schools on a $200,431 grant to expand an Instructional Improvement System pilot experience.The
$250 million Straight A Fund was created this summer in the Ohio state budget and is the largest such
competitive innovation fund in the country. More than 570 applications were received for the fund this year.
A total of 24 projects were nominated by the fund’s governing board.