Congratulations to Strongsville Schools!
Several of the stylists at our Parma hair salon have children enrolled in the local schools – as do countless numbers of clients who consider our hair salon in Parma to be the best hair salon in Cleveland. We were really happy and excited for all of them when we learned that the Strongsville City School had been awarded a $1.2 million Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant!
But you don’t have to be a parent in Strongsville – or any of the communities our Cleveland hair salons serve – to appreciate this good news. We all know that when our children succeed it’s good news for the whole community.
“This grant will provide $1.2 million in funding over the next three years to provide three (3) K-5 literacy coaches, as well as Lexia Learning program to support reading instruction and intervention for every elementary school building,” Cameron Ryba, superintendent of Strongsville Schools, told the media when the news was announced last week.
The money is earmarked for a very worthy cause – to further literacy efforts at the K-5 grade levels. “Reading is the foundational skill that ultimately allows us to learn more, and through this application process, we were able to see the great work happening in Ohio’s schools,” said Paolo DeMaria, state superintendent of public instruction. “These Striving Readers grants put crucial resources directly into classrooms across the state, and we’re excited to work with awardees to improve outcomes for Ohio’s most vulnerable children.”
The grant is part of a program run by the Ohio Department of Education. Apparently, a total of around $33 million in grant funding was awarded to various schools that were eligible across the state. The state used a competitive peer review process to determine which of the many grant applications would receive funding.
Out of all of those applications, only 46 school districts in all of Ohio were awarded grant funding for their reading programs. The size of the grant received by the Strongsville schools indicates that their application must have scored very well!
Superintendent Ryba said that a certain staff member deserved recognition for her role in the grant process. “A special thanks to Director of Curriculum Erin Green for the countless hours spent to set the vision, develop strategic actions, and complete the comprehensive application for these grant dollars,” she said. “Based on her efforts, these literacy supports will be in place for both our teachers and students to provide the strong literacy foundation we all desire for our K-5 students.”
There’s so much doom and gloom in the news these days, it’s really nice to be able to share some good news for a change! A young lady at our hair salon in Parma pointed out that there is plenty of good news out there – sometimes we just have to look a little harder to find it. As we prepare to head into the summer months, all of us at Illusion Unlimited – which has the best hair salons in Cleveland (yes, we’re a little biased, we admit it – but we’re happy to say that lots of others have told us we have the best salons in Cleveland) – wish you and yours long sunny days and lots and lots of good news.
