Schneider Electric awarded Communities in Schools (CIS) a $2,000 grant Tuesday.

Scott Bannister, executive director of CIS, says the two have a partnership that began in 2010.

“Pretty much every year we’ve given them a grant,” Candace Lloyd, senior general coordinator for accounting at Schneider Electric, said.

The grant goes to providing school supplies, uniforms and tutoring services in the seven Rowan-Salisbury schools in which CIS works. Currently, CIS partners with North Rowan Middle, North Rowan Elementary, Knox, Isenberg, Koontz, Hanford Dole and Overton. Bannister says the grant will be split evenly among the schools.

Schneider also collects and donates school supplies to CIS once a year, and now, Bannister says, they’re going to donate their time. After talking to Bannister, the company decided to begin recruiting volunteers among its employees. The volunteers will serve as mentors and tutors at Koontz Elementary.

“The grant is great,” Bannister said, “but being able to partner with Schneider to help us get volunteers to help with our students at Koontz is awesome.”

Lloyd says the company has been generous enough to give potential volunteers time off to participate, and Lloyd is designing a rotating schedule to ensure they don’t get overwhelmed. Since the grant was awarded Tuesday, four Schneider employees have signed on as CIS volunteers, Lloyd says. She and Bannister are looking forward to many more.

“It seems like we’re going to have a really good partnership,” Bannister said.