Updated June 18, 2019

The largest grant ever awarded to Lawrence County will provide new avenues to keep students learning during the summer and bring additional access to reading materials during the school year.

Page Turners, a program that promotes literacy and proficiency in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, will fund improvements in the southern Middle Tennessee county for the next three years.

Awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, the $2.25 million grant will impact children from birth to 5th grade, along with Lawrence County’s families, teachers, and schools.

The grant supports summer camps for up to 45 students at each of the county’s eight public elementary schools and keeps the each of the schools’ libraries open for six weeks during the summer months.

Students will also gain access to myON, a digital library of 6,000 fiction and nonfiction books.

Students can access myON at their school libraries or anywhere with internet access, using a school computer or their own device.

With an estimated population of 43,734 and a median household income of $41,522, a total of 15.6% of Larence County’s residents live in poverty, according to records from the United States Census Bureau.

The Page Turners grant also includes a plan to convert a school bus into a mobile literacy/STEM lab that will visit places where people gather across Lawrence County including churches, community centers, and volunteer fire departments. Covered bus will offer internet connections and hands-on STEM activities.

Grant funding will also provide mobile hot spots for areas in the county that remain without internet access.

Elementary school libraries will also remain open after school hours.