Saugus superintendent pursues federal grant for middle school

SAUGUS – Superintendent Richard Langlois is going after another grant aimed at bolstering the long suffering middle school.It is the second grant sought directly for the Belmonte Middle School, which took a big hit during budget cuts over the last two years.The federal school improvement grant is being sought in collaboration with the Woburn and Billerica school districts and could net the three towns as much as $175,000 combined. Langlois said the money, even in part, could go a long way toward rebuilding the school.”And since we’re the leader, we’ll take the biggest prize,” Langlois said, smiling.In the past two years the school has been bumped down from secondary school status to elementary school status because it couldn’t provide the required 990 hours of time and learning. Belmonte Principal Charles Naso tied the loss of the teachers to the school’s plummeting MCAS scores. He said earlier this year that when the school received an influx of new textbooks, which it hadn’t seen for decades, he thought maybe things were turning around.Later, however, the Department of Education issued a report showing that utility bills, special education costs and insurance premiums were all going up, but gave no explanation for how schools were expected to handle the increases.Naso said that dashed his expectations that his school was looking at a turnaround, but now it appears a turnaround could be coming from state and federal grants, not the town.Langlois said one of the things he would like to use the grant for is more testing.Currently MCAS is the only inclusive testing the middle school does and Langlois said he would like to be able to measure student achievement against something other than just MCAS scores. To that end, he said he would like to purchase a testing program for fourth and seventh graders and the technology that goes along with it.He said that might make things a little tougher for the Waybright, Lynnhurst and Oaklandvale elementary schools, which don’t have computer labs, but are on his wish list.Other items on the grant wish list include professional development, new curriculum and technology.”We may not get everything,” Langlois noted, adding he plans to see how Woburn and Billerica use their grants.Langlois filed for the improvement grants shortly after putting the finishing touches on an Expanded Learning Time, which he is very excited about.The ELT grant would be aimed directly at extending the academic day at the middle school. If it’s approved it could bring as much as $936,000 into the budget, but it would be earmarked solely for the extended day.Langlois is very excited by that notion.”The ELT will make such a difference here and we have a great shot at getting it,” he said.Because the extensive grant was largely written by middle school teachers and without the help of grant writers, Langlois said the state was duly impressed.”It shows we have a true commitment to this,” he said.Langlois is hoping to hear the results of both grants early in the New Year.