Times Staff Report

GARY | Mayor Rudy Clay announced Thursday a $491,000 federal grant that will help the city's school system lower its dropout rate.

The grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Employment and Training, will help develop a Multiple Education Pathways Blueprint, giving students access to educational opportunities they otherwise may not have.

"It's about taking young people that have dropped out of school and putting them back on the paths of being good students and good taxpaying citizens," Clay said at a news conference.

The Center of Workforce Innovations is the project manager while Debra Irving-Holley is the newly hired Educational Pathways manager. The Northwest Indiana Workforce Board selected Workforce Innovations to oversee work force development in Lake County.

Overseeing the entire process is the Gary Education Leadership Council, which Clay chairs.

The Leadership Council, which seeks out input from the community, will be the governing body for the project.

The program will target at-risk students and dropouts up to age 25.

Few details were given on how the blueprint, which will take two years to complete, will be implemented in the schools and community. Judy Stanton, secretary of the Workforce Board, and Mary Steele-Agee, superintendent of the Gary School Corp., alluded that the Gary Career Center will be a major component of the plan.

A number of organizations are listed as partners in the blueprint project, including Indiana Workforce Development, Edgewater Systems, Indiana University Northwest, Ivy Tech, The Legacy Foundation and the Lake Area United Way.