New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The Only District in Massachusetts to Receive Two ELT Grants.
New Bedford Public Schools has been awarded $715,600 in funding for Expanded Learning Time grants, the second year in a row that the district has received the competitive funding.
Normandin Middle School received $385,000 and Hayden McFadden Elementary School received $330,600. Normandin teachers ratified the proposal to apply for the grant earlier this school year, and an expanded learning time schedule was part of Hayden McFadden’s turnaround plan as a school in Level 4 status.
The grant will add one hour a day to Normandin Middle School for all students, as well as additional time after school, while Hayden McFadden’s grant will add an hour and a half a day for all students and ten additional school days to the calendar.
“Expanded Learning Time is an incredible opportunity for our kids, and we are very grateful that we received this competitive grant from the state,” said Superintendent Pia Durkin. “This is a chance to continue to improve instruction and shows that our strategies are working. Last year, Gomes Elementary School received this grant, the first school in New Bedford to ever receive this important funding from the state. Additional time on teaching and learning for Hayden McFadden, as well as an expanded day for the Normandin Middle School’s new innovation program, will give our teachers at these schools the tools they need to serve every child.”
Twelve schools statewide applied for the funding with only three receiving ELT, two of them in New Bedford. This highly competitive process at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received proposals from 44 applicants requesting funding for 64 sites, or $9.8 million in funding with just $3 million available. Key attributes for applicants according to the DESE were clarity of design, plans for integration of academics into engaging, enrich activities, solid internal/external partnerships, and explicit connections between plans and grant priorities. The three-year ELT grants require reapplication each year.
