Gallia County receives $1.65 million grant to improve literacy

GALLIA COUNTY, Ohio (WOWK) — Gallia County is getting a big boost to help teach kids the essential skills they need.

Reading is one of the essential building blocks for learning, and Gallia County Local Schools received a $1.65 million grant from the state of Ohio to help increase literacy.

The money will better equip their teachers to teach reading, phonics as well as bring more literacy coaches into schools.

Rochelle Holley, the director of instructional services and former English teacher, is glad to bring the best teaching techniques to the classroom.

“It means a whole lot because we work diligently to try to make sure we’re identifying the right curriculums, the right programs, the right frameworks, and right through teaching strategies,” Holley said. “And, it means a lot to make sure that we’re helping the teachers to get the proper professional development.”

Gallia County was the first in the state to receive funding to promote literacy a few years ago, and they’re already seeing results as literacy increased over the last few years.

Superintendent Phillip Kuhn said that it’s important to make sure kids stay caught up in their learning milestones.

“It’s the most important thing that we can focus on. I mean, it’s, you will struggle on other subjects if you’re not a great reader. We all know that,” Kuhn said. “So, it’s critical that they come out of elementary being on grade level as a reader. And then, as if you go to the middle school and high school, then they, you know, they read to learn new information.”

Moreover, literacy is able to help kids both in and out of the classroom.

“Our schools want to continue to grow kids in all subjects,” Kuhn said. “But certainly if we can get our kids reading on grade level, that’s going to produce a better citizen for our community.”

Holley said that literacy opens many doors for students.

“A person that’s well-read is going to understand and know a lot more about a lot of different topics,” Holley said. “They’re going to be able to have conversations with people that they may not have been able to relate to if they hadn’t maybe read certain materials and certain things. So, it opens a lot of doors for a lot of things.”

$1.2 million of the funds will go toward Pre-K through fifth grade, and the remaining $450,000 will go toward grade six through eight.

Classes in Gallia County begin on Aug. 19.