FAIRMONT — The Fairmont School Board on Tuesday heard of several requests for gifted and talented grant dollars from various teachers in the Fairmont school district. The grant dollars are set aside each year by the school board.

q Jonas Nissen, a high school English teacher, requested $1,500 for several students to attend a writing workshop led by professional authors.

q Claire Theobald, a junior high school history teacher, requested $2,174 for the National History Day competition.

q Sam Viesselman, high school robotics coach, requested $6,000 for materials, tools and technology for an upcoming robotics competition.

Grant requests totaled $9,677 with $14,323 remaining in the gifted and talented fund.

In addition to the gifted and talented grant dollars, there were several requests for STEM grant dollars. Another six teachers in various subjects requested grant dollars totaling $78,000.The money went to a variety of projects dealing with either science, technology, engineering or math. There is a total of $29,026 remaining.

Brown reminded the board that the one page grant is fairly simple to fill out and he encourages other teachers to take advantage of the funds set aside for special programs and projects.

“We really appreciate the staff that went up and above to think of different things to encourage students,” said board member Julie Laue.

In other news, Fairmont Community Educations and Recreation director, Roni Dauer, provided a CER update.

“This year we celebrated our 48th year of serving our Fairmont community and school district,” Dauer said.

CER aims to provide lifelong learning and activities for people of all ages, birth through senior years.

Dauer introduced Morgan Hoong, a junior at Fairmont High School and member of the CER advisory board.

Hoong has spent a little over 95 hours so far this school year volunteering in the Lights on For Kids after school enrichment program through CER. She is working toward gaining enough hours to receive a volunteer letter award through Fairmont High School.

“I joined CER in September of this year as a student representative and I also started volunteering during Lights on For Kids. I can say that CER is the backbone of this community. Most of the activities in this community are ran through CER and it takes multitudes of coordination to even get it up and running,” Hoong said.

Hoong spoke more of the many activities offered through CER. She specifically highlighted Lights on For Kids and all the activities it provides for youth.

“It allows kids to explore their own creativity. I’ve learned that every child can be an engineer. When we have free time we play with legos and these kids build rockets, engines, airplanes and even moving cars,” Hoong said.