SE-L Schools are excited to receive news from the U.S. Department of Education that Ohio has been selected to receive Round 2 Race to the Top (RttT) funding! This means that the SE-L School District stands to receive more than $300,000 to support staff professional development and programming that will increase student achievement and reduce the achievement gap.
SE-L’s own Superintendent Bill Zelei was instrumental in the winning application. He was the only superintendent representing Northeast Ohio in this process, invited to participate by the RttT Committee, which included other superintendents, State Superintendent Deb Delisle, representatives from the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Board of Regents. The committee was established by KidsOhio.org and Ohio Grant Makers Forum.
It was an incredibly competitive process throughout, but Ohio’s application demonstrated a commitment to bold and innovative education reform reaching students across the state to ultimately benefit their success. Ohio is joined in this historic opportunity by Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, as well as Delaware and Tennessee, who were awarded funding in Round 1. The reforms outlined in our RttT plan will impact all of Ohio’s districts and schools with 538 districts and community schools leading our efforts through their signed memorandum of understanding (MOU). Ohio has been awarded $400 million, of which more than 90 percent will directly support the work of schools across the state.