BSD gets another Gates Foundation grant

The Bremerton School District's efforts in early childhood learning are paying off not only in student achievement, but in additional funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand those efforts and show other school districts how to create early childhood learning successes.

The foundation recently awarded the district a two-year grant worth $369,838, which will allow the district to enhance its existing early childhood learning efforts.

"Bremerton was given the grant as a reward for what we're doing with early childhood education," BSD Assistant Superintendent Linda Sullivan-Dudzic said, noting that the district is the only school district in the nation with such a program.

The district had already received one grant from the Gates Foundation for early childhood learning and based upon the results from that grant, the district was able to receive additional funding, Sullivan-Dudzic said.

The second part of the grant allows the district to continue its work with other school districts to provide instruction on how to develop early childhood learning programs, and last year the foundation brought 20 other school districts to Bremerton to showcase the district's efforts, she said.

Districts bring teams of three, including superintendents, principals and teachers, to Bremerton to events aimed at providing more hands-on and personal instruction on early childhood learning, she said.

"Kindergarten teachers get to work with kindergarten teachers, and principals get to work with principals," she said, noting the Othello School District has already created an improved English Language Learner program, based upon what its staff saw during a conference in Bremerton.

The grant also facilitates the expansion of the district's work with licensed childcare provides in the Bremerton School District boundaries to better align their teaching efforts with the district's K-12 curriculum, she said.

As part of that effort, the Naval Avenue Early Learning Center will become a teaching/learning center, she said.

"This will allow us to have classes on evenings and during weekends, because (in-home) providers can't always take time off during the day," she said.

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