Local middle school needs the 12th Man’s help, seeks community’s votes as part of a $200,000 national education contest

Tacoma, WASHINGTON (11 March 2014) Ford Middle School, of the Franklin Pierce School District, is the only school in the Puget Sound region that

has entered a $200,000 national education contest hoping for a chance at one of the 15 prizes that will be awarded to recognize the best in K-12 innovation. In addition to completing an online application for the third annual Follett Challenge, Ford Middle School also submitted a short video to promote its innovative programs that teach students the 21st century skills they need to be prepared for life. The video can be viewed at http://bit.ly/1lX1CXP.

Ford Middle School’s Follett Challenge submission is about its Literacy for Life Program that starts with a school-wide book launch of The Lightning Thief and concludes with a student-led project of transforming the school gym into Camp Half-Blood.

Ten of the prizes, valued at $5,000 each, to be given away are from the “People’s Choice” category and will solely be based on how many votes applicants have received for their videos from the public. Video voting begins March 7. All the video submissions have been posted on the Follett Challenge website (www.FollettChallenge.com) under the “View Entries” tab. Ford Middle School’s video can be viewed at  http://bit.ly/1lX1CXP.

After registering, users can cast one vote per day through April 4, when voting ends. Not only are the public’s votes significant in the video voting portion of the contest, but they also will play a role in the overall rubric as 30 percent of each school’s final score is based on the number of votes generated for their video.

“We hope our community will support us by viewing our video and voting for our submission,” said Heather Renner, Principal of Ford Middle School. “Participating in the Follett Challenge recognizes our educators for the great job they are doing with the limited resources they have and, should we win, reward them with resources to do more. It also will give our educators here a platform to share their innovation with other schools across the country.”

With a total prize value of $200,000 in products and services from Follett – a global education solutions leader – the overall winner will earn a $60,000 prize, plus a celebration at the school, while each of the other three semifinalists will earn $30,000 prizes. The 10 “People’s Choice” awards are worth $5,000 each in products and services and will be announced April 14 along with the semifinalists. This year’s Follett Challenge will honor semifinalist winners in four categories: elementary, middle, high school and magnet/parochial/K12 schools.

The judges will be seeking applications that illustrate critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration between students and among teachers and other members of the school staff. Last year’s grand-prize winners were Maplewood Richmond Heights School District in St. Louis, Mo., and Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif. The 2014 grand-prize winner will be announced May 16.