MULLICA SCHOOL STUDENTS GET $4+ MILLION GRANT

WOW!!! This is an amazing opportunity for Mullica kids. First announced at the last Mullica School Board meeting and then at the next nights Town meeting as a joint GEHR and Mullica school grant of $535,000 over five years for 4th through 12 graders after school enrichment programs. In reality it turns out to be only for Mullica students in grades 4 thru 12 and will be started in the new school year after this summer.

Under ‘No Child Left Behind” criteria this extra funding is intended to set up a 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) in Mullica which is defined as a center which offers academic, artistic, and cultural enrichment opportunities to students and their families when school is not in session. The offered programs will all be run here in Mullica with Mullica High School students bussed in after school for the enrichment offerings between 3 P.M. and 6 P.M. and students will also be bused home.

The goals here are to implement activities within the following categories: remedial education and academic enrichment learning programs; mathematics and science activities; arts and music educational activities, entrepreneurial educational programs; tutoring services and mentoring programs; programs that provide after-school activities for limited English proficient students that emphasize language skills and academic achievement; recreational activities; telecommunications and technology education programs; expanded library service hours; programs that promote parental involvement and family literacy; programs that provide assistance to students who have been truant, suspended or expelled, to allow students to improve their academic achievement; and drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs and character education programs.

Mullica will hire a Director to oversee this program. While no students from Mullica will be turned away the focus hopefully will be on enticing the staggering high number of Mullica students who test failing in Math and Literacy testing. A special effort needs to be made to draw these failing students into this program and GadFly will report on what hopefully will be a dramtaic education return on this large amount of grant money.

The primary goal of the 21st CCLC program is to supplement the education of children who live in high-poverty areas with academic, artistic and cultural enrichment during out-of-school time hours, so that they may attain the skills necessary to meet state core curriculum content standards. In addition, the centers must offer literacy and other educational services to the families of the participating students. Mullica as a “B” socio-economic rated community nd was thus eligible for this funding that will offer students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs before and/or after-school, or during hours when school is not in session; and offer literacy and other educational services to families of participating students.

If one focuses on where Mullica is doing a terribly poor job in educating local kids one would hope that there will be a major effort to entice these kids into this important program. The failure of Mullica teachers, Board and administration is stark in some areas. 7th Grade test scores in Math show 52% failing ...and in Reading , 23% fail!!! Those are ugly numbers that should shame anyone connected with the Mullica school system. With a very low target in terms of numbers of students for this important program (70) the focus needs to be on getting Mullica’s large number of failing kids involved in this after school program. Failure to target the Mullica students who are doing poorly would be to waste this $4 million. Hopefully there will be some statistical analysis of what kids are recruited into this program and a follow through in improving test scores.