By Sarah Hall

Editor

The Liverpool Central School District is the recipient of a $1.2 million 21st Century Community Learning Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the district announced earlier this month, which will allow 750 first through sixth grade students in four elementary schools to participate in summer and school-year learning and enrichment programs.

The grant, which will impact students at Chestnut Hill, Donlin Drive, Liverpool and Long Branch elementary schools, will provide for programming that will begin this summer and, depending on federal funding allocations, continue through the 2021-22 school year. The district will work with Contact Community Services in East Syracuse to provide math, science and ELA instruction using project-based learning. According to Karinda Shanes, director of youth development services for Contact, who has been working with Liverpool on writing and administering the grant, the initiative will begin with a four-week summer program designed to prevent summer learning loss and reinforce what students learned during the school year.

“During the academic time, an LCSD-certified teacher will be instructing a classroom of 25 students for approximately one hour per subject,” Shanes said. “The student will rotate between Math, ELA and Science for a total of three hours of academics.”

That will be followed by an enrichment period each day, which can include sports, arts or personal interests including STEM, cosmetology or culinary arts. Students will rotate enrichments every week for four weeks.

In addition to the in-school component, the grant works to increase parental involvement through “family literacy education, parent-focused activities and trainings and mental health workshops to support interactive literacy between parents and their children, parenting education and adult education,” Shanes said. “We see parent/family involvement as a crucial element of a successful program.”

Contact will be responsible for hiring the staff, but Liverpool teachers are encouraged to apply, especially for the academic portion of the program. Contact will also provide two full-time youth development specialists during the school year at each of the four schools to provide academic and social support to the students and staff as well as their families.

According to Steven Garraffo, interim assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment at Liverpool, Contact is an ideal partner for this endeavor.

“The way I like to state it, they’re like our quarterback. They’re like our project manager,” Garraffo said. “They were very instrumental in helping us to write the grant and they are working with us on getting students registered.”

This is the third 21st CCLC grant in which Contact has participated. The organization is also working with schools in the Syracuse City School District, a program it began in 2005, and the North Syracuse Central School District on similar programs.

“They’ve done this before, so they know what they’re doing,” Garraffo said.

According to Shanes, those programs have been very successful.

“Contact’s 21st CCLC programs have met or exceeded objectives in social-emotional learning, positive behavior, and academic achievement as evidenced by its NYSED site visits and Syracuse University Professional Research and Development evaluation reports,” she said. “These programs have kept students on track for academic success.”

Garraffo said Liverpool looks forward to seeing the same success in its students.

“Without going into numbers and getting into results on state assessments, not unlike other districts in the area certainly we know that there’s room for improvement,” he said. “We are forever striving to help those who are not meeting proficiency and have those who are meeting proficiency do even better. Our students will benefit from the academic services that are put in place not only during the summer but during the school year.”

Garraffo noted that the 21st CCLC program would also provide Liverpool’s teachers with opportunities for professional development.

“I don’t want to be selfish, but [this is also] good for the district,” he said. “Clearly this is all about working with our kids, but a benefit for us is professional development. Those who are involved, those who are considered lead trainers, and those who will teach the classes will receive professional development.”

Most importantly, having extra support and extra people to provide that support will make for better interactions between the students in those four schools and the teachers and adults they see on a regular basis.

“Besides academic, besides literacy and math skills, it also fosters better social skills, improved relationships between our students and adults,” he said. “Without question.”