September 26, 2013

Springfield Public Schools was notified today that they won an unprecedented 7^th consecutive, 3-year federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant, one of only 27 school districts in the country to be awarded this highly competitive grant.

This school desegregation and innovation grant—the only remaining desegregation assistance provided to school districts by the federal government — will bring in $11.8 to support work at 3 of our current public schools in Springfield and to establish a new, small 6-12 Arts school downtown.

This Magnet grant will provide funding for the following schools and magnet themes:

Central High School: STEAM for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and Advanced Studies. Central will also serve as a demonstration school for Pre-AP instructional strategies and practices;

Renaissance: Expeditionary Learning and STEM. Renaissance will serve as a demonstration school for Expeditionary Learning instructional practices and strategies for other EL schools in the district;

Duggan Middle School: Expeditionary Learning and Social Justice. Over the course of the grant Duggan will grow from a middle school serving grades 6-8 to a 6-12 school by adding one grade at a time, beginning in the fall of 2014.

Springfield Conservatory of the Arts. This will be a new, small school (60 students per grade) for grades 6-12.  The school will open in the fall of 2014 for 60 students in each of grades 6 and 9 and grow by one grade per year until it reaches its full complement of students in grades 6-12 by the fall of 2017.

 

Magnet schools provide educational choices for families living in Springfield and offer students the opportunity to participate in rigorous, hands-on, in-depth learning experiences that connect their school work to the real world.  This work is supported by business, community and higher education partners who help build bridges from middle and high school to college and the world of work beyond.

Since 1995, Springfield Public Schools has received over $52 million in Magnet grant funding – this most recent grant will bring that total to $64 million by the end of this 2013-16 grant.