Some Troup County students and former students may get the chance to work for the summer while being provided services improving their educations and their vocational services.

New Ventures Inc. in LaGrange is looking to provide 100 students with summer jobs through a grant of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Workforce Investment Act.

Local employers can get workers paid through the federal government, while workers will gain real-world insight into new, post-secondary opportunities, officials said at Tuesday’s school board caucus meeting.

“Kids are always looking for opportunities to work and to go to work and make money, and employers in our community are always looking for savings sources to help pay for people who are at work,” said Janet Greer, director of post secondary opportunities for Troup County schools. “This is a wonderful opportunity that we’ve joined in.”

Potential candidates must have parental permission, be 15 to 18 years old, be economically disadvantaged, have a reading level of grade 6.5 or above and have one or barriers keeping them from employment. This includes pregnant students, parenting teens, dropouts, legal offenders or those with a deficit in their reading skills.

The school system is looking to initiate the program beginning in January with a maximum of 100 students to begin with. Troup County has an estimated 360 students who qualify for the program.

“If you come and start this program with us in January, February, March, April and May, we will do our best to put you to work for the summer,” Greer said.

Only two counties were awarded the grant, and Troup County seniors will be the first to participate in the program.

“We really believe that this will give them some of the thought skills as well as some of those instructional components that will be needed when they get ready to go into the work force,” Assistant Superintendent Sylvia Hooker said.

In other matters, the board is expected at Thursday’s meeting to approve:

— A bid of up to $39,976 for excess workers’ compensation insurance. Currently, the system has received a bid of that amount from Safety National Casualty Corp. in St. Louis, which represents a more than $3,000 increase from the previous year’s premiums. The board will either accept the bid as a guaranteed rate for the next two years or go with a reduced premium from another bidder.

— And two addendum to the Carl Perkins Local Plan program, which will provide an agricultural equipment grant for $75,000 and a Career and Technical Education grant for $145,000 for two business education labs and one automotive lab for LaGrange High School. The school system learned the first week of December that the funds had to be spent by today.

Trey Wood can be reached at twood @ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.