Local schools awarded film equipment through grants

Students in Stephens County will soon get a taste of the audio/video technology and film equipment.

At the recent Stephens County Board of Education work session, Stephens County High School Assistant Principal and CTAE Director Teresa Phillips announced that through a new grant, the middle and high schools will be receiving audio-video technology and film equipment.

Phillips told the board about the grant provided by the Georgia Department of Education and the Education Sports and Equipment Network (ESE).

“We received the grant for the high school and the middle school,” Phillips said. “This grant became available August 1, and we applied and received notification yesterday that we received the grant. The purpose of the grant is to provide CTAE high school and middle school programs with the equipment, server, storage capacity, and technical support that exposes CTAE students to opportunities with audio/video technology and film.”

According to Phillips, each school will receive all the necessary equipment to expose CTAE students to the field of audio/video technology and film.

“Primarily, what we will use the equipment for is to promote our CTAE programs and CTSOs at the middle school and use it for promotion and recruitment for our programs, pathways, and CTSOs at the high school,” Phillips said. “Again, this is an equipment grant, and we will implement that equipment through our graphics communication program at the high school and our business and computer science program at the middle school.”

Phillips added that each school will be receiving equipment valuing over $15,000, along with training and technical support provided by ESE Networks.

“As part of the grant, ESE Network will deliver the equipment to each school, set up the equipment at each school, and provide training for the teachers on the equipment and then continue technical support,” Phillips continued. “So that’s a great way for us to, without providing a classroom with a full lab and a teacher, be able to provide exposure to what students can do with that type of equipment, and hopefully get some exposure locally, at some point, with some of the film industry that will be coming into the community.”

Each school will be receiving one encoder with switching and editing software, two 64gb SD cards, two Sony cameras, two tripods, two camera bags, two Sony remotes, two Sony mic kits and two Sony headphones kits.