*Sent on behalf of Jason Mott, ISBE Agricultural Education Principal Consultant

Hello Illinois AG ED,

I hope you had an incredible year.  I know you have so much to do this summer, and I am really looking forward to meeting many of you at the State FFA Convention, and at the IAVAT Conference.  My name is Jason Mott, and I am the new Principal Consultant for Agriculture at the Illinois State Board of Education.  I started in mid-March, and have been drinking from a firehose ever since. 

You may have seen the announcements that the Three Circles and the Ag Ed Incentive grants applications are now available in IWAS.  I am asking you to hold off on submitting for both of these grants for a short time.  We funded and released those grants based on what we thought we would receive for funding in the new State Budget.  However…

We are so excited to announce that the AG ED line item in the state budget received an additional $800,000 for FY25.  This is amazing news we were not expecting. 

We are working on the revising the allocations. These funds will be loaded into IWAS within the next two weeks.  Once these new funding totals are in IWAS, we will send out a new email, and encouraging you to apply at that time.

If you have already applied for either grant, no worries. If your application was approved, a simple amendment can be made to receive the full funding.  If it has not been approved yet, it will be disapproved so that new funding can be loaded before you resubmit. The grants are due July 1 for a July 1 start date and application submitted after July 1 will have the start date of the submission date.

I know you all have a lot on your plate and want to get these applications completed, but good things come to those who wait. 

I look forward to working with you all, and thank you for all that you do to further Agriculture Education in the state of Illinois.  We are growing a better future together.

Jason Mott
Agriculture Principal Consultant, CTE Department
Illinois State Board of Education
100 N. 1^st St. N-242
Springfield, IL 62777
Office Phone: 217-524-4832