1997 Grant Award:

(1) Southeast Alabama Regional

$350,000
Dothan, Alabama

The Southeast Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission (SEARP&PC) is a nonprofit corporation providing education, health, dental, mental health, nutrition, disability, and social services to seven rural counties in Southeast Alabama. SEARP&PC also provides for a public transportation system and job opportunities for low income senior citizens. The most serious problem hindering economic development and expansion in the Southeast Alabama is the lack of an educated and trained workforce. Access to the Global Information Highway is essential to preparing Alabama's students for employment in the Information Age. As a result, the Southeast Alabama Network is designed to meet these challenges by creating an educational and distance learing network for regional K-12 schools, the medical community and citizens. Theproposed grant funds will be used to purchase the necessary hardware, software, training, and technical assistance to provide Internet access to K-12 schools, medicial facilities and personnel, and citizens in the seven county region.

(2) Fayette County Board of Education

$189,280
Fayette, Alabama

The Fayette County Board of Education has the legal responsibility for maintaining the public school system in the rural northwest Alabama county of Fayette. The Board maintains seven school sites throughout the county with a student population of 2,847. The grant award will establish a fiber optic distance lerning network that will link three high schools, Berry High (Berry Community), Hubbertville High (Glen Allen Community) and Fayette County High (Fayette Community), in the county so that both the teacher and the learning resources would be shared by all students. The cost to implement this technology without the use of RUS grant funds would be too expensive for the Fayette County Board of Education to meet and borrowing additional funds would be infeasible. By using the grant funds to establish a distance learning center, students will have access to interactive learning facilities that will enable advance classes in health, science, math, and English to originate from any of the school campuses. In addition, future plans include having the students take college courses while attending the high school during the normal school hours from the local junior college, Bevill, which is planning to establish its own fiber network.