SAUGUS — The town’s public schools have received a pair of grants totaling more than $200,000, allowing the district to continue implementing a new curriculum and providing services catered to the social and emotional well-being of students.
The grants — a $116,100 award for the implementation of high-quality instructional materials and an $89,315 award for social-emotional learning and mental health — are both continuations of existing funding sources into the current fiscal year. Both grants were awarded by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Susan Terban explained that the first grant is for the implementation of Wit and Wisdom, a new comprehensive K–8 English language arts curriculum, in the town’s schools.
Turban said the district is using the money for professional development and stipends, not for an educator preparation program.
During a School Committee meeting last week, Acting Superintendent Michael Hashem said central office staff at the schools conducted a series of classroom visits during recent weeks, and praised the district’s teachers for the work they have already done to implement the new curriculum.
“The teachers did an amazing job, they’ve really taken towards trying to implement this curriculum with fidelity,” he said. “They have the curriculum, they have the program, they’re implementing it, they’re giving it a try.”
And, Hashem said, there appeared to be continuity between the curriculum being presented to third-grade students and seventh-grade students — a “step in the right direction” for the district.
“It was really nice to see,” he said.
The other grant, for social-emotional learning and student mental health, will pay for the cost of four community mental-health liaisons in the schools. The liaisons coordinate partnerships between local therapeutic agencies and the schools to offer clinicians embedded within the buildings for individual counseling, according to Terban.
The committee first voted to accept the grant last December, when Superintendent Erin McMahon, who has been on paid administrative leave since January, told the committee that the district had previously sought funding through the program but had been turned down.
“We’re really looking to really create a strong system where we support all kids with their mental health and we provide a tailored solution specifically for our kids who have specific needs,” McMahon said at the time.
