West Ashley Schools Need Your Votes

With tight budgets and more and more funding being cut from education every year, schools are looking for extra money anywhere they can find it.

Two West Ashley schools are looking to 20th Century Fox Television, specifically to the network's hit show Glee, for help. Fox has teamed up with the National Association for Music Education to create the Glee Give a Note contest that will dole out $1 million to 73 schools across the country in $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 increments.

"My classes do a lot of videos and we're a school of communications and technology, that's our partial magnet program, so it really fit with the talent we have here," Angela Rogers, a drama and musical theater teacher at , said. "We thought why not go ahead and try."

has also submitted a video for the contest.

The contest is based on three equal parts, according to NAfME Assistant Executive Director Elizabeth Lasko. Schools taking part in the contest each submitted a video that now appears on the Give a Note website where users can view and vote for the school they like best. Each individual IP address can cast a single vote each day until Monday, Nov. 7.

After voting ends a panel of music teachers will meet to study the music programs at every school participating and determine which schools have the greatest need. They will also be judging the quality and creativity of the submitted videos, Lasko said.

Taken together, the user votes, the need of the program, and the quality and creativity of the videos will be used to determine three grand prize winners, which will get $50,000, 10 first prize winners that will get $25,000 and 60 second prize winners will receive $10,000. The prize money is being funded through the sales of the Glee Season 2 DVD set.

You can view and vote for both schools' videos here. They are two of 10 South Carolina schools participating. Approximately 450 schools nationwide made it past the contest's first round cut, Lasko said.