The grants are called 21st Century Community Learning Grants, and the school districts receiving them are Bellaire, Bridgeport, and Martins Ferry.

The Belmont County Community Action Council, or CAC, applied for the grant money which is part of the federal 'No Child Left Behind Act.' The Belmont County CAC has received nearly 300,000 dollars in this continuation grant to distribute between it's school districts' elementary schools that have the highest number of disadvantaged students. With this grant money, the elementary schools in Bellaire, Bridgeport and Martins Ferry will be able to continue to offer after school learning and support programs for their students.

According to Bellaire Superintendent John Stinoski, "So many of our students go home and don't have the support as far as doing homework and reinforcing the social skills learned and sometimes a lot of the students come from single parent families and a lot of the time that supervision is not there. "

Stinoski says members of the Belmont County CAC are actually the ones who come to the schools to put on the after school programs and activities. Stinoski says receiving this grant money once again is extremely reassuring - considering Bellaire applied for this same type of grant money for it's middle school this past spring - and was turned down. However, Stinoski says he and the other schools have the Belmont County Community Action Council to thank.