Middletown Public Schools Gets $30K Grant For Early Education

The Middletown Public Schools has been awarded a three-year grant from the Liberty Bank Foundation to provide summer literacy programming for at-risk students entering kindergarten in the fall.  The $30,000, three-year grant was one of three awarded under the foundation’s Early Literacy Grants Program, which is new this year; other recipients were schools in Plainville and Montville.

The grant will fund Kindergarten Kickstart, a 5-week, 5-day-a-week, full day program for students who have had limited preschool education and/or could benefit from additional pre-K experience. 

“This grant will enable us to to serve approximately 30 students each year who are about to enter kindergarten at Macdonough or Farm Hill Schools,” said Jon Romeo, principal of Macdonough Elementary School.  “The goal is to boost their literacy skills so that they can hit the ground running when school starts in the fall.”   

The program, which is already in operation, comprises a 5-week summer session whose curriculum is designed to enhance vocabulary, communications and writing skills, as well as to build students’ confidence and enthusiasm for attending school. 

“Parents and families are central to the success of this program,” Romeo noted.  “They’re greeted when they drop off their children, and are welcome to stay and join in the activities.”  He added that parents are invited to participate in a workshop that teaches them how to support their children as developing readers.

The Liberty Bank Foundation introduced the Early Literacy Grants program this year as a means of addressing the achievement gap between students of low income and their more affluent peers.  It provides three-year grants of up to $30,000 to fund creative supplemental literacy programming at elementary schools in Liberty Bank’s service area.  The goal of the grant program is to ensure that students are reading at grade level by grade 3—an important milestone. 

“It’s critical for children to be reading at grade level by the time they begin fourth grade,” said Patricia Charles, superintendent of Middletown Public Schools.  “That’s the point where students begin using their reading skills as a tool for learning other material.  If they don’t have that skill, it’s easy for them to fall behind in every other subject.” “This is a perfect illustration of the old adage, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’” said Sue Murphy, executive director of the Liberty Bank Foundation.  

“By identifying these higher-risk students very early and providing them with added literacy support, this program can help place them on a path to becoming successful learners throughout school and in adult life.”  Murphy noted that foundation staff will stay in contact with school staff and will visit the program each year to observe its progress. 

“We’re grateful to the Liberty Bank Foundation for this grant,” said Charles.  “Without it, we wouldn’t be able to operate this program.”