For Immediate Release

Contact:
Dan Beach, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Education and Child Development
(417) 873-7336
E-mail: dbeach@drury.edu

SPRINGFIELD , Mo., February 2, 2007 — Emerson Climate Technologies, Lebanon R-III School District and Drury University are pleased to announce the launch of the Lebanon Home, School, Community Program. The new program will provide for a total of 24 scholarships for current teachers in the Lebanon R-III School District to earn a Master in Education (M.Ed.), special reading.

Emerson Climate Technologies will provide $120,000 over a three-year period to help fund the tuition scholarships. Classes will be held on Drury's Lebanon campus and online. The curriculum includes classes such as Leadership in Reading Programs, Improvement of Reading Instruction, Analysis and Correction of Reading Problems. The program will also provide opportunities for Drury students to attend literacy workshops. In addition, a partner-in-education volunteer program will offer mentors from the business community for students and parents in the Lebanon schools.

The program will run from summer 2007 through summer 2009. Participants will graduate in August 2009 and will be eligible for the Missouri Special Reading Teacher Certificate.

Drury University is a National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accredited institution. For application information, please contact Drury's Lebanon campus at (417) 532-9828. The Home, School, Community Program in Lebanon is based on the successes of the partnership between Drury's School of Education and Child Development, Yale University, and three schools in the Springfield Public Schools in the Comer Project.

Emerson Climate Technologies, a business of Emerson (NYSE: EMR), operates a facility in Lebanon that employs more than 1,200 people involved in the manufacture of the company's market-leading Copeland Scroll™ compressors, a key technology used in residential and commercial air conditioning systems.

Lebanon R-III serves more than 4,500 students.

Drury University has taken the lead among private universities in the Midwest in truly integrating a liberal arts education with comprehensive professional programs. At Drury, the power of intensive faculty and staff mentoring in small-class settings creates an atmosphere of high academic expectation grounded in a supportive learning community, an ideal combination which produces leaders ready to serve in a global community.

###

University Communications staff are available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 300-0905. Visit the Office of University Communications online at http://news.drury.edu. Resources include a searchable Expert Guide, staff contacts and downloadable print-quality images and logos.