The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District will expand academic, career training and social support programs for children of military families using a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s school division.

District officials stated in a press release that they were honored to receive the grant. It will help lead to changes at all secondary schools, said Wayne Gerke, assistant superintendent of secondary schools for the district.

The grant-funded work will focus on five schools with the highest population of military dependents.

Those include Eielson Junior-Senior High, Lathrop High, North Pole High, North Pole Middle and Tanana Middle schools. During the 2008-2009 school year, the district served more than 1,100 military dependents from both Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright Army Post in the five schools.

The grant will pay for a three-year program to improve academic performance, with a focus on math skill-building and college preparation. The grant also will fund career training and emotional support services for military children entering local schools.

Several tutoring programs and additional Advanced Placement classes will be added at Eielson High School. The grant will fund SAT and ACT college entrance-exam tutoring in three high schools. It will cover transportation costs for students attending after-school tutoring programs and technical career training programs throughout the borough.

A large portion of the funding will assist military dependents as they move from middle schools to high schools. Children who are new to the district also will receive help adjusting. Five part-time specialists at each of the five schools will offer emotional and social support.

Military officials asked the school district to apply for the grant, Gerke said, because of the high number of military dependents attending Fairbanks schools.

“We were approached by the military to develop programs that would better meet the needs of students with parents in the military,” he said. The grant is not part of the federal economic stimulus package.

This is the first year the military’s school division has offered such grants, said Department of Defense Education Activity Director Shirley Miles.

“We are looking forward to seeing how the districts implement programs they’ve developed,” Miles stated in a news release. “We know that all children in the grant recipient districts will benefit from these awards.”