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The Warren County Career Center is getting a financial boost of $190,000, Superintendent Dr. Robert Terrill announced during Monday night's meeting of the school district's board of directors.

"This is money well spent in the Career Center," said Terrill. "There are a lot of good things happening in the Career Center."

According to a press release issued through Pennsylvania Congressman Glenn Thompson (R-5), the funding will be available through the Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill and grant funds from the U.S. Department of Education. Thompson's predecessor, Rep. John Peterson, a former member of the House Appropriations Committee, requested the funds.

"Sound technical education in today's global economy is more critical than ever before," Thompson, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, said in the press release. "In this increasingly competitive world, students in our region are not only competing with each other for jobs, but are now competing with job seekers in other states and countries."

The release stated that the $190,000 will specifically be used to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and technology which will enable automotive technology students at the WCCC to train on the equipment that is currently used in the auto industry. The funds will assist both the high school and adult education programs.

In other business, the board approved two contracts with Playing Surface Solutions per the Co-Stars contract for track stabilization at Youngsville High School and Eisenhower Middle/High School.

The amount for track stabilization at Youngsville is not to exceed $24,500 while the amount for Eisenhower is not to exceed $22,500.

In early September, the board of directors' Physical Plant and Facilities Committee examined the Playing Surface Solutions stabilizing material that would be added to the existing track surfaces. It is a water-activated binder that Dr. Norbert J. Kennerknecht, director of buildings and grounds services for the district, said "firms and cushions."