Salem Public Schools Awarded $76,000 in Multilingual Learner Grants
Grants 189 and 348 geared to support multilingual learner students, families
SALEM (Dec. 6, 2024) – Salem Public Schools was awarded two grants totaling $76,000 toward Multilingual learner education from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), announced André Fonseca, Director of Multilingual Learner Education at SPS.
For the second straight year, SPS received Grant No. 189, the Proficiency-based Outcomes in Languages Other than English Grant, in the amount of $26,000, which will provide necessary funding for the Seal of Biliteracy Exams to be held Mar. 3-5, 2025 for Salem High School students.
The grant will also fund placement exams for grade 6 students entering grade 7, and grade 8 students entering grade 9 who are beginning or continuing their study of a new language.
Grant No. 348, the Multilingual Newcomer and Homeless Support Grant, in the amount of $50,000, will provide critical funding for six endeavors:
- An $11,880 stipend to teachers to conduct English classes for parents.
- $7,000 to provide stipends for teachers to conduct workshops for English-learning families (including Latinos for Education and Tech Goes Home).
- $20,000 will go to the SPS Bilingual Incentive Program which provides extra stipends for bilingual teachers to perform bilingual outreach to newcomer family members.
- $2,000 will be allocated for 1,200 minutes of video conference translation services from Waltham-based LionBridge Technologies.
- $6,120 will fund 15 iPads with Apple Care for live video interpretation at all 11 schools within the District.
- $3,000 in transportation vouchers will be earmarked for families to attend community/school events.
In providing such opportunities to multilingual learners and families, the grants fully support the District’s 2023-26 Strategic Plan’s core principles of elevating learning, empowering our educators, centering belonging and strengthening the District’s foundation.
“We are grateful to DESE for accepting our applications and we look forward to the additional services we will be able to provide to our students and families,” said Mr. Fonseca. “Both of these grants fully support the core values of our strategic plan: elevating learning, empowering our educators, centering belonging and strengthening our district’s foundation.”
About Salem Public Schools
Salem Public Schools is an urban public school district in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is a small, diverse city with a proud maritime and immigrant history. Our leaders and our teachers are all passionate about education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement with equity and social-emotional needs as the lens we view all of our work through. We respect and value the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of our students and their families, and have a strong commitment to the Salem community. Salem Public Schools staff serve all of our students, regardless of ability or language. Salem Public Schools enrolls approximately 4,000 students across its eleven schools.
