VAN WERT – Van Wert City Schools Superintendent Ken Amstutz announced on Wednesday the district had been awarded $750,000 as a part of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education funding program. The three-year grant was administered as part of the Ohio Department of Education’s Education Technology program which was designed to embrace new techniques and technology for professional development and student learning. Van Wert was one of only five districts from the entire state to receive this particular grant.

“We are very excited,” said Superintendent Amstutz. “This will tie directly into what we are doing with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) over the past several years with Project Lead the Way. With the pre-engineering, we are starting the bio-medical part this year and then moving to a new tech high school – we believe that what the state and what the federal government is asking us to do with STEM is right what we want to do.”