COVINGTON, Ga. - 

Tiffany Merriweather, Newton County School System’s new grants coordinator, hit the ground running as soon as she was hired, and that work has paid off for the school system as NCSS was one of only three school districts in the state to recently win an Innovation Fund Tiny Grant from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. 

The school system will use the $7,000 grant to expand the offerings in the NCSS Book Bus, a mobile library that travels around the county to provide free books to students and their families. Since the Book Bus hit the road in 2015, NCSS has provided more than 15,000 books to children in the Covington/Newton County community.

“We are very excited about the work of the Book Bus,” said Merriweather. “Reading is the foundation of education; we want our students to enjoy it and become life-long readers. With the Book Bus, this message reaches our schools and communities. And with this new grant, our students will be reaching for more books.”

“For me, reading is a passion, and it is integral to the success of our students,” sad Samantha Fuhrey, NCSS superintendent, said. “Unfortunately, many of our students do not have books at home from which to choose; that’s why we launched our Book Bus. Nothing beats the smile on the face of a young child when they select new books to keep and enjoy. The Book Bus has allowed many children throughout our community to collect and maintain their own personal library of new books to enjoy. The money received from this grant will be used to purchase new books to restock the shelves of the Book Bus so even more children have access to excellent reading materials.”