Marblehead lands more than $500G in grants

MARBLEHEAD – Marblehead had a good surprise this month: More than half a million dollars in state and federal grant money, most of which can be used to prevent layoffs and add jobs in the schools and town departments.A State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) grant will bring the town and schools an additional $361,356 for this year and Fiscal 2012 and a Race to the Top grant will bring the schools an additional $146,298 during the next four years, starting with $30,000 this year.The grants were unveiled as part of a one-page listing of grants prepared by School Business Manager Brian Salzer, who said Marblehead is receiving a total of $2.57 million in grants this year.Other major grants include three grants totaling $1 million for special education; $403,000 for the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program; two grants totaling $300,000 for the Title One program at the Marblehead Village School and Marblehead Veterans Middle School; $139,200 for the kindergarten program; $83,000 for the school nurse program; $61,485 for the mentor teacher program.Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac cautioned the School Committee against calling the additional $507,000 “a windfall,” however.”A windfall is something we can use this year and this money is coming in over several years,” he said.Dulac has already earmarked $60,000 of the SFSF grant to cover one year of salary for a Title I literacy teacher at the Marblehead Village School, to help students who are having problems with math and English literacy.The remaining $300,000 will be applied to the Fiscal 2012 budget.”We’ll be using it to avoid layoffs and add jobs in the schools and on the town side,” Salzer said.