FROM STAFF REPORTS

VINCENT – Vandiver Steel recently donated 20 Kindle Fires to Vincent High School to help students achieve technology fluency and meet the state’s new Common Core standards.

Operating Manager Brent Garrett, a Vincent High School alumnus, and Document Controller Maranda Strange presented VHS Principal Joel Dixon and Jennifer Supri’s Advanced Placement English class with a check for $3,908.52 on behalf of Vandiver Steel.

“I take pride in our school and community because this is where I grew up,” Garrett said. “(Vandiver Steel) wanted to provide this opportunity to the school because education is important, and we want to give back to the school that gave many of us so much.”

Garrett spoke to Supri’s class about the opportunities his education at VHS has since afforded him and encouraged the students to strive to be whatever they want and take pride in the small community from which they come.

He then presented the class representing the student body with the check to purchase the tools that will aide in furthering the school’s technology efforts to produce 21st century learners who are college and career ready.

Vincent High School is one of very few schools that allows students to check out devices from the school’s media center on a take-home basis.

“We began piloting the program last year where students could check out Nooks that the school owns to read and complete assignments,” Media Specialist Kelley Deason said. “In the more than a year that this program has been in effect, we’ve never had a device lost or damaged.”

The 20 Kindle Fires purchased by Vandiver Steel will join 20 more Kindles purchased by the school’s English department through another grant from A+ College Ready and 30 IPads funded by the Shelby County Board of Education to provide three mobile carts for teachers to check out for classroom use.