Pataula Charter Academy recently received a $10,000 stART Education Grant from the Georgia 
Department of Education. The school plans use the grant funding to start offering band classes. During the next school year, Pataula Charter Academy will start offering Band 1 to high school students. The school plans to add Band 2 the following year and hopes the classes will lead to the creation of an active band for athletic and extracurricular events.
“We’re so excited to be able to use these funds to start a band program at Pataula Charter Academy,” said Cheryl Weathersby, PCA Chief Financial Officer and Business Director. “It’s been a dream of ours to provide this opportunity for our students. Without this grant funding, it would have taken us several more years for us to reach this goal.”
Kathy Bantz, an instructional coach at Pataula, wrote the grant and will teach the classes. Bantz began her career in Music education after performing with the Elmira and Binghamton Symphony Orchestras in New York.
The purpose of the stART grants is to assist rural schools and districts in creating and developing arts initiatives that support quality arts education programs that significantly
improve student access to the arts.
