Washington, DC
Neal to Visit with Students and Take Part in Roundtable Discussion with Local Officials
(SPRINGFIELD) Congressman Richard E. Neal will visit Reid Middle School – 950 North St, Room 139- tomorrow at 10:15am to announce a $168,000 federally-funded education grant.
“Investing in education is our most valuable resource,” said Neal. “This grant will go a long way toward preparing thousands of students across our Commonwealth for higher education and job training.”
The purpose of the federally-funded Massachusetts 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) Grant is to support additional learning time for students in grades K-12 before and/or after school and during the summer that provides creative and engaging academic enrichment opportunities that will help to address college and workforce readiness and success. Federal funding for Massachusetts schools through the CCLC Grant totaled $5,633,387.
“This 21st Century Learning Center will be an ideal program for Reid students and their families given the demographics and diverse student population at Reid,” said Principal Morgan Williams. “This funding will allow our school to target support for students who need it the most, and it will also provide academic enrichment services such as tutoring in core subjects like written and verbal communication, science and math. This programming will provide an enriching learning opportunity to students in a 21st century learning environment. I couldn’t be more pleased that our application was awarded funding from the Dept. of Education.”
Participating in the roundtable with Neal and Williams will be Mayor Dan Bianchi, School Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy, 7th Grade Team Leader Julia Saboriun, 21st Century Director for Pittsfield Public Schools Liz Baker and students from Reid Middle School.
This grant program will enable 22 school districts and their partnering organizations from across Massachusetts to support 448 hours of additional learning time during before and/or after school time and during the summer for students in grades K-12. In these communities, 44 new CCLC sites will provide creative and engaging academic enrichment opportunities that will help to address college and workforce readiness and success.
Presently at Reid – and within Pittsfield – there is an insufficient amount of after school programming to meet the social, emotional, physical and academic needs of its middle school students and families. 21st CCLC is about supporting school day learning through academic support and enrichment classes. The program has a high academic focus with an inquiry/project based approach in a challenging after school setting model.
90 students will be enrolled in after school and summer programming annually for three years. Academic focus will be on writing, listening, science and technology standards in the new Common Core. Student targets are to serve youth that have absentee issues, falling behind academically, at-risk, and/or behavior issues. Partnerships will be with a wide range of organizations including Berkshire Theatre Group, Berkshire Health Systems, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield Community TV and IS183.
In addition to Reid Middle School, Berkshire Hills Regional School District received $264,000 for Muddy Brook Elementary and Monument Mountain Regional High School.
