GRANADA – The Granada-Huntley-East Chain School Board on Thursday heard from Principal Mandy Fletcher, who reported the school is a recipient of an arts integration grant from the Perpich Arts Integration Network.

The grant is meant to help with the next phase of the school’s STEAM rollout.

GHEC?is one of 10 sites to receive a three-year grant.

The school also has received a Statewide Health Improvement Program grant of $4,500. It will be used to increase physical activity throughout the day.

The school will use some of the funds to purchase a snack cart to provide healthier choices for preschool to third-grade students.

In other business, Superintendent Dale Brandsoy gave an update on upcoming construction work at the school. It’s a tight timeline, but spring has started and the general contractors think they can get things moving.”

He said there will be a groundbreaking ceremony sometime in early April.

In another matter, IT specialist Jim Paisley spoke to the board, noting the school received a $2,000 grant.

“We’ve been talking about acquiring some carts of either Chromebooks or iPads, in order to increase accessibility of those technologies to our students,” Paisley said. The carts are expensive, running from $2,500 to upward of $10,000, so Paisley said the school would rather spend money on the devices, and source carts from another district.

In other action, the board approved a Minnesota State High School League application for girls volleyball to be shared with Martin Luther High School and Truman High School in the 2016-2017 school year.

Home games would be played on a rotating basis, with revenue from those games staying at the home site.