While the Haverhill district grapples with potential cuts, public school officials made the case last week to include a new early literacy program in the budget. With the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requiring lower-income districts to demonstrate how they will improve outcomes with state aid, Superintendent Margaret Marotta said of “Wit & Wisdom,” “that’s our most pressing lever for change.”
With a projected $10.7 million deficit next year, Chief of Teaching, Learning and Leading Bonnie Antkowiak told School Committee members it would cost an additional $421,000 to adopt the program districtwide, $260,000 plus professional development for kindergarten to second grade and $138,000 plus professional development for third to fifth grade. Marotta added they could roll it out over three years, spreading out costs. Marotta called “Wit & Wisdom” the district’s “priority among priorities.” The committee motioned, in the words of member Richard J. Rosa to “approve this presentation we received tonight about our student opportunity act money as our priority for the Haverhill public schools.”
While Marotta said the district has already invested heavily in four of the five areas detailed in the 2019 Student Opportunity Act, they still need to work on a “comprehensive approach to early literacy.”
“We are really looking to improve our early literacy programs and our early literacy scores,” she said.
State Rep. Andy X. Vargas, journalist Dan Kennedy and health advocates will discuss the problems posed by lead during a panel discussion next week in Haverhill hosted by Lead Free MA. Lead Free founder Andrea Watson, one of the speakers, left Flint, Mich. for Massachusetts after the 2016 water crisis.
Jobs such as “Budtender” for a cannabis business, certified personal trainers, police officers, drivers, mail carriers and others are among the many hiring during MakeIT Haverhill’s next job fair. Employers on hand include United States Postal Service, Choice Fitness, Haverhill Police Department, Vinfen, Smyth Cannabis, Penacook Place and Mary Immaculate, Northeast Independent Living, Opportunity Works, NRT Bus and Urban Bridges. The job fair takes place Thursday, April 25, from 4-6 p.m., at MakeIT Haverhill, 301 Washington St., Haverhill.
State Sen. Barry R. Finegold was recently reappointed to Gov. Maura T. Healey’s Economic Development Planning Council. Finegold was named by Senate President Karen E. Spilka to serve on the Council, which provides input on and oversight of a four-year economic development plan. “Charting a robust and inclusive path for economic development in Massachusetts requires a willingness to listen and expertise in what our businesses need—both of which Sen. Finegold has in spades,” said Spilka.