The largest grant — nearly $1.5 million — awarded this year by the federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative will go to the Vicksburg Warren School District.

Official word was pending, but the money can apparently be spent in myriad ways.

This year the SSHS had $32.8 million to allocate and it was split among 18 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 29 school districts out of the 422 applicants will receive money. Wabash Community Unit School District No. 348 in Mount Carmel, Ill., received the smallest grant, $705,734. VWSD received the largest, at $1,463,456.

Susan Bentley, VWSD’s director of federal programs and special education, could not be reached this morning.

Since 2001, four other Mississippi school districts have received SSHS grants. Districts in Starkville, Jackson and Monticello won grants for 2008 and one in Greenville was a recipient in 2002. The money went to projects such as “clubs to raise awareness about making smart decisions” and hiring an additional school safety officer in the Starkville School District, said Nicole Thomas, public information officer there. In the Lawrence County School District in Monticello, some of the grant money went toward teacher training and a mentoring program.

“We’re going to basically target alcohol (and) drug use (and) teen pregnancy — anything that prevents a teen from being successful in school,” said  Lindsey Blackledge, project director for the Lawrence schools.

Grant recipients must join with local public mental health agencies, law enforcement and juvenile justice services to establish a community plan geared toward increasing student safety or health. Those elements include safe school environments and violence prevention; alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention; student behavioral, social and emotional supports; mental health services; and early childhood social and emotional learning programs.

Through the initiative, the federal Education, Justice and Health and Human Services departments have awarded more than $2.1 billion since 1999.

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Contact Andrea Vasquez at avasquez@vicksburgpost.com