| HATHORNE – Superintendent Heidi Riccio is pleased to announce that Essex Tech has received a $120,000 grant through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to enhance the quality of and increase access to after-school and out-of-school time (ASOST) programs. |
| This grant award represents Essex Tech’s continuing commitment to strengthening student learning by implementing innovative, interactive, relevant, and engaging teaching and learning strategies during the school year and summer that meet the specific academic, social-emotional learning, and developmental needs of students. ASOST is inclusive of before-school, after-school, vacation and summer programming hours beyond school time. |
| Essex Tech plans to conduct a series of integration learning academies to combine career technical and agricultural learning with academic skills to create highly engaging products. |
| During previous academies, students have planned, designed, built, and improved hovercrafts, braking devices, shipping vessels, trebuchets, and baseball launchers. Students who attend these academies earn additional credit, and often return as participants or student mentors for the next academy throughout the school year. |
| “My favorite events are the final competitions that come at the end of each integration academy,” said Assistant Superintendent Thomas O’Toole. “The ASOST grant has extended our learning and in so doing allowed us to develop integration coursework during the actual school day.” |
| Essex Tech plans to collaborate with Express Yourself, a learning organization in Beverly. Express Yourself is dedicated to community-based arts education, and will develop two new integration academies that involve the sounds and sights of Essex Tech. |
| “We are grateful to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for these funds, because they will support our students who have academic gaps due to the loss of learning during the pandemic,” said Superintendent Heidi Riccio. “The combination of academic and technical content creates a deeper learning of the skills needed. All of this is done through project-based learning where student leaders act as mentors to their younger peers.” |
| A total of $3.5 million is expected to be awarded to districts across Massachusetts as part of this grant during FY23. |
| To learn more about the Afterschool and Out-of-School Time (ASOST) Grant, click here. |
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