U-46 wins nearly $1 million grant

Elgin Area School District U-46 has about a million good reasons to think about history these days.

The district has received a $985,448 Teaching American History grant to support American history classes and programs.

U-46 will use the grant money for a three-year professional development program, said Jeff Feucht, Bartlett High School's social studies and world languages department chair and project director for the new grant.

The "Roadmap of American History" project partners U-46 high school history teachers with the Illinois State Historical Library, the Elgin Area Historical Society, Northern Illinois University, and the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago.

Teachers will attend a series of workshops centered around specific areas of the U.S. history curriculum.

The program will help teachers discover ways to make American history more engaging and relevant to students, Feucht said in a news release.

"It's really exciting to receive such a considerable source of funds to provide support for the teaching of American history. This is really a boon to the great U.S. history teachers we have here in U-46."

U-46 was one of six school districts in the state to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Maine Township District 207 received $999,152. Palatine Township District 211 was awarded $991,860.