KXCV News recently had the opportunity to speak with Jakob Prater, a reporter at the Mound City Newspaper, about what he's been covering in Holt County. Prater said one important story he followed was at the Craig School District, which received a grant from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
"It's a five-year, 49-million-dollar-grant that schools have applied for to help improve their literacy over time. Only 80 districts in the state got selected and only twenty-one of those were high schools. They'll get resources for their classrooms, and online resources," he said.
The grant is for literacy programs, but the definition is broad. It can even be applied to math education. Craig is a small community that has had its struggles in recent years, said Prater.
"They've had a lot of people leave the school and the town since the 2011 and 2019 floods. But they've entered a renaissance, honestly. [Both] the school and the community. They've been working on adding more students and they have. Their student body was a little up this year," he said.
Chillicothe also received one of the DESE literacy grants.
In other news from the region, Prater said he got to attend the Holt County Autumn Festival which took place in Oregon Missouri Sept. 3rd-6th.
"This was the first time in a few years that they were actually able to bring some games and some carnival rides. And it's good because they were able to afford it this year and the sell more tickets and make more money. and the Fair Board will be able to keep it going on. This was the seventy-second Holt County Autumn Festival,” he said.