State Announces Funding for 30 School Districts

It's described as a partnership between struggling school districts and the state, and on Thursday, the Alliance District Program got a major boost in funding.

The state announced that $132 million dollars will go to 30 school districts in the program to help close achievement gaps.

“It's with enormous pride that we move forward with a great number of approvals of Alliance District grants,” said Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

In Bristol, the school district will use some of the money to help implement full-day Kindergarten beginning this year.

“We have such a rich curriculum now that are students are expected to know and understand, and to try to try to squeeze that into a half-day program is virtually impossible, so I think students really need access to instruction for a full school day,” said Bristol School Superintendent Dr. Ellen Solek.

The New Britain school district has been concentrating on student support systems by focusing to provide services to students who may need more help in school.

“We realize to adequately perform in our school district we need to change some mindsets, change some direction, and some of that was toward professional development, as was mentioned here, our English Language Development Program,” said New Britain School Superintendent Kelt Cooper.

Teachers and parents say they've already seen a difference.

“Last year, more than 50 percent of my students were able to pass from no English at all, to different levels of English,” said Ana Davila, a teacher at Pulaski Middle School.

They hope this additional funding will build on what the school districts have already accomplished.

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