Haverford School District Wins State Grant

Haverford Township School District is one of nine schools statewide that will receive a $75,000 Pennsylvania Department of Education grant for serving as a model district, Assistant Superintendent Nicholas Rotoli said at a Haverford School Board meeting on Thursday night.

Under the Standards Aligned System (SAS) Model District grant, Haverford School District will serve as a model for other school districts that are trying to align their curriculums with state standards, Rotoli said.

Standards Aligned System is defined as a “comprehensive approach to support student achievement across the commonwealth,” Rotoli said.

The grant will provide the school district with $25,000 per year for three years, Rotoli said.

On Thursday night, Nov. 3, the school board unanimously approved the letter of agreement for awarding the district $25,000 for the 2011-2012 school year, which is the first year of the grant.

The grant funds can be used for professional development, to defray travel costs to SAS conferences, and for data assessments tools, Rotoli said.

An example of a data assessment tools would be if the district chose to purchase software to make curriculum-based assessments for readily available to educators, Rotoli told the Haverford-Havertown Patch after the meeting.

Superintendent William Keilbaugh said the grant gives the school district the opportunity “to go to a higher level.”

“We want to have a higher expectation for ourselves …We’re really getting into this to get better,” Keilbaugh said.