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This year’s SHARP Kids program will kick off Oct. 28, as part of a new and enlarged five-year $1.3 million grant.

Kids in the program will get a heavy STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) related curriculum experience with hands-on projects.

The program is for K-12 kids who may be struggling to maintain grade-level academic results.

Director Mary Schilling said students in kindergarten through third grade will have morning groupings from 7:15 - 8:15, and all other grades will have after-school activities.

The annual $260,000 program will enable SHARP Kids to increase staffing levels to handle some 160 students, about double what the program accommodated last school year.

The biggest change under the new 21st Century five-year program, and the increased funding, will be re-starting the elementary school students.

Students will be admitted by invitation. The program is geared to help students gain ground in some of the areas where they might be lagging.

The program kicks off Oct. 28, at 5 p.m., with a barbecue for students in the program and their parents.

Schilling said the new five-year program will focus on STEM curriculum.

“Students will get hands on opportunities to use science and math practices in a fun way,” Schilling said.

The school district’s STEM-focused “Lead the Way” curriculum, with its activity-, project-, problem-based experiences approach, will also be the focus of the grant’s summer program in 2015. Added funds will also allow the summer program a five-week duration instead of last year’s four-week effort.