In the hopes of obtaining a school improvement grant to help implement new curriculum at Wright City Middle School, the R-II school board has unanimously accepted the school transformation model as the option identified in its application. The decision to accept the transformation model was made during a special meeting last Thursday and was in response to the middle school's placement on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (DESE) Persistently Low-Performing School List in May. The list names the lowest 20 percent of school achievement throughout the nation and includes 88 schools from Missouri this year, compared to just 32 last year. The competitive grant has approximately $8.9 available for dispersal to schools that qualify, according to DESE officials. Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines said the school district is expected to seek approximately $400,000 in grant money. Gaines said the finalized grant application will be presented to board members Dec. 15 and submitted for approval the following day in Jefferson City. The transformation model, which was chosen over the turnaround, restart and closure models, will see improvement of the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extended learning time and student data usage to implement instructional programs. "We're working with our Aimesweb and Discovery learning programs," Board President Austin Jones said. "We want to do these programs on steroids and apply techniques and technology to help us out." Another stipulation of the model was that the principal be replaced, but DESE officials informed the district that because Principal Dr. Jeff Haug had only been in place one year, he would be an exception. Jones said accepting the transformation model was about moving the middle school in the right direction. "We're trying to right the ship," he said. "I think with this we're getting started." Jones also said the competitive nature of the grant was something that the district would not shy away from. "This is a competitive grant and other districts are in the same boat we are," he said. "We have to come out on top." Gaines said despite a substantially shortened deadline for the grant application, the district was prepared. "This goes back to May and we kind of got out in front of it," he said. "We went through the four models and the transformation model is what the staff prefers. We left the meeting in May with an implied promise to parents that we would have another meeting on the topic, which was last week. "All of the sudden, we get a letter (recently) from DESE saying some of these (grant forms) are due tomorrow." District officials said the grants would likely be awarded in February. "We should know by at least spring and we'll then amp up the components of the grant for next fall," Jones said.