With help for a neighbor in its own backyard, Silver Bluff High is now a National Math and Science Initiative school.
Centerra-SRS, which provides security support services at the Savannah River Site, gave $75,000 to the school Thursday to support a three-year grant for the National Math and Science Initiative, or NMSI, program. Its purpose to to expand the number of students take advanced math, science and English courses and prepare them for post-secondary success.
Mark Bolton, the senior vice president and general manager of Centerra-SRS, presented a check for the donation to Silver Bluff High Principal Bert Postell during the school's second-annual State of the Bluff address at a meeting of the Parent Teacher Student Organization.
“It's a gift the school, but it's connection to the community,” Postell said after the announcement of the gift. “It's a great program that has the potential to transform a school.”
Bolton said NMSI is an important program for students and teachers.
“We've been in the community 35 years at Centerra, and community support is very important to all of us,” he said. “I can think of no better way to support a high school that's just a few miles from the site.”
Through its College Readiness Program, Postell said NMSI would help prepare students for success in college by focusing on the following:
• Increasing rigor in honors-level coursework
• Increasing access to honors-level coursework for under-represented student populations
• Increasing access to Advance Placement, or AP, coursework
• Increasing success on AP exams.
Students who score a 3 or higher on AP exams earn college credit while in high school, Postell said.
“That's money. That's money in their pockets. That's money in your pockets or money that doesn't have to come out of your pockets,” he said.
The program also provides Saturday study sessions for students, mock exams, extra professional development for teachers and monetary rewards for students and teachers.
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