Marshfield Education Foundation Awards Record $151,732 in Grants
Foundation celebrates 15th anniversary with largest grant award to date; Marshfield High School implements new "flex block" schedule
MARSHFIELD - May 13 - The Marshfield Education Foundation (MEF) celebrates its 15th anniversary this year by awarding a record $151,732 in grants to Marshfield Public Schools, bringing their total contributions to over $1.4 million since the foundation's inception.
MEF representatives Steve Dion and Heather Tucker presented the grant award at the May 13 Marshfield School Committee meeting, highlighting the foundation's most successful fundraising year to date.
"This year being the 15th anniversary, we saw over 200 grants awarded in the 15-year history of the event and also over $1.4 million raised," Dion says. "This year was excellent, was our best year yet at 109,000 that we raised for the foundation."
The foundation received 29 grant applications requesting a total of $226,990.93 and approved 22 projects across the district.
"Through the grant committee, what we do is we use the rubric and the applications that have been vetted through the leadership teams," explains Tucker, who serves as MEF vice president and grant chair. "We take about four hours. We all do the work ahead of time, read the grants, score the grants, and then just our discussion alone on what we're approving is about four hours."
Tucker emphasizes the foundation's commitment to supporting a wide range of educational initiatives.
"There was a wide range. Anything from trying to build school to career readiness to support literacy," she says. "We just really appreciate the teachers coming in strong with really well-written grants."
Superintendent Patrick Sullivan expresses gratitude for the foundation's support.
"It's truly an impressive foundation. It really is. Like, unrivaled, really," Sullivan says. "The way you bring people together, so thank you to you and to all who helped with this grant process."
School Committee member Lauren Dargan notes the impact of the grants on Marshfield educators.
"This validates the passion that our educators have," Dargan says. "To write the grants, to have the ideas of how to improve things, and it's just, I think it's so validating for the educators that go above and beyond."
In other business, Marshfield High School Principal Amy Cetner presents the school's improvement plan, which includes the implementation of a new "flex block" schedule.
"The idea of implementing the flex block was a direct result of getting feedback during our NEASC visit regarding a need for the guidance counselors to have structured time during the school day to implement their own curriculum," Cetner explains.
The flex block provides counselors with opportunities to meet with students in small and large groups while aligning with district goals for multi-tiered systems of support.
"It gives them an opportunity to meet with students in small groups and large groups, but also aligns with our district goal around MTSS and providing supports for students during the school day as well," Cetner says.
The high school is also examining its current building schedule to determine if it's meeting student learning needs. A scheduling committee has been working for approximately a year and a half to evaluate various schedule options.
"We've looked at a variety of schedules. We've gotten feedback from local schools in the community. We've received feedback from students and our teachers along the way," Cetner says.
Furnace Brook Middle School Principal Patricia Casey presents the middle school's improvement plan, which includes the formation of a "belonging team" modeled after the district-level team and the introduction of a new sixth-grade healthy connections course.
"Our first new step actually relates to a program of studies change that we're implementing in new sixth grade healthy connections course," Casey says. "To address some of what we saw in the YRBS [Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System] data specific to students needing to be able to identify an adult that they felt uncomfortable with in the building."
The course aims to help sixth-grade students identify supportive adults in the building and develop communication skills to seek assistance when needed.
"The goal is that our sixth grade students will work on identifying people in the building that they can connect with, how do they seek people out, how do they communicate with people that might be able to support them," Casey explains.
Other notable items from the meeting include:
- The district's "We Are Marshfield" day showcased high school students performing community service throughout town
- The Marshfield High School Theater Group presented "Once on This Island," marking Theater Technical Director Mr. Baldwin's retirement after 24 years
- The district announced its Wall of Honor ceremony on May 28 at 291 Ocean Street to recognize former educators and community contributors
- The district's bus registration deadline is approaching with approximately 1,700 students still needing to register
- Annual town meeting will reconvene on June 2 to address financial items in the warrant
The School Committee unanimously approved both the high school and middle school improvement plans.