By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

A local school district has won a statewide grant to help with pandemic response.

Pinckney Community Schools is being awarded a $10,000 Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) COVID-19 Response Grant. This award, funded by the Kresge Foundation, will be used to provide access to Nepris software for PCS students and staff. Nepris software connects educators with a network of professionals in a wide variety of industries, allowing students to explore an equally wide variety of career options.

The grant is one of 13 MCAN is awarding in this twelfth round of funding. To date they have awarded 100 grants totaling nearly $570,000 to support post-secondary projects and programs across Michigan.

Ryan Fewins-Bliss, executive director of MCAN, said in a release that that they are proud to have the capacity to rapidly mobilize resources and act as a support to schools and organizations. MCAN works to engage partners across Michigan who are committed to systems-level change and the reduction of barriers to increase college readiness, participation, and completion rates. Their goal is to increase the state’s postsecondary educational attainment rate to 60% by 2030, and has helped the rate climb closer to that goal for 10 consecutive years.