The New Jersey Department of Education is set to provide $2.5 million in grants to improve after-school programs at two Trenton middle schools.
The departments plans to distribute $500,000 grants in each of the next five years to enhance student year-round learning and bring more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics experiences, cultural and civic activities and lifetime fitness and sports activities to Grace A. Dunn and Joyce Kilmer middle schools.
The funding is provided through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program Grant.
Not only does the grant support Trenton Public Schools, but also provides funding for community organizations. YMCA of Trenton and The Children’s Home Society of New Jersey plan to use the grant to expand programs for middle school students.
The 21st Century Program supports Trenton Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Durán’s middle school redesign, incorporates the district’s emphasis on improving middle grade education and uses STEM as a means of focusing students on academics.
Durán has promoted greater collaboration with community partners.
Trenton YMCA plans to provide swimming lessons for students and their parents all year, as well as boating, physical fitness and nutrition, arts, and youth leadership development activities.
Each seventh grade student at the two schools will have a free Trenton YMCA membership.
21st Century funding provides the opportunity to strengthen CHS of NJ’s Trenton’s school-based programs working with 235 more Dunn and Kilmer students, expanding the agency’s school-based services that reach more than 2,500 Trenton students ages three to 15.
For 27 years, CHS of NJ has partnered with Trenton Public Schools and offered its daytime and after-school program called KIKS (Kids Intervention with Kids in School). CHS of NJ services now can be expanded to include students at Kilmer.
The “Middle School Engineering Challenge” is one of the core STEM activities of the new 21st Century Program. Over the course of 10 afterschool sessions, teams of students will research, design, build, test and demonstrate their own bridge or tower using popsicle sticks and glue. Each team’s resulting structure will be tested for strength and durability.
The engineering curriculum was created by employees of Rhodia, Inc., a Cranbury-based manufacturer of specialty chemicals, specifically for middle school students.
