Published: January 23, 2008 11:19 am      

Byng Schools receive grant

BYNG—Byng High School officials have announced they have received a $5,000 grant from Disney’s High School Musical: the Music in You Grant Program.

A letter to Byng Drama Teacher Jamie Miller from the NAMM Foundation and Disney Channel said out of schools across the country, Byng was one of only 10 selected for the grants. According to the letter, Byng School District will receive a cash grant of $5,000 to help fulfill the educational goals outlined in its proposal and a waiver of up to $4,000 toward the licensing to produce High School Musical.

“Everyone here is really excited to have this opportunity,” Miller said. “Two of my students, Heath Holt and Sydni Hudson, inspired me (and coerced me) to fill out the grant application for the Disney Channel’s “Music In Me” grant. My students and I worked on it for several days and enlisted the help of Betty Allred, Melissa Coates and JoAnn Layne. We are currently slated to perform our version of High School Musical for the end of April,” Miller said.

Byng was selected after review by the foundation staff and a review committee. The letter from the foundation went on to say the selection was very difficult given the high quality of so many applications and the sincere desire of school administrators, faculty and students to develop a production of High School Musical. Byng’s application reflected strong school and community commitment to produce a quality production along with a demonstrated need and the ability for the production to affect the school, its curriculum and the community.

The Music in You Program encourages middle and high schools across the United States to put on their own school stage production of Disney’s “High school Musical.” The announcement was made at the NAMM Show and on the Disney Channel Friday.

“Without the help of the above named students and Byng faculty, I could not have done it,” Miller said.