Smithtown Schools Receive Portion Of Smart Start Grant

SMITHTOWN, NY — Smithtown Central School District is one of nine school districts to be included in the recent Smart Start grant received by Western Suffolk BOCES, according to a news release from the school district.

The Smart Start grant is intended to curate innovative programs that boost professional development and support to increase K-8 teachers' expertise in computer science, engineering and/or educational technology.

Smithtown was one of the component districts that expressed interest in participating in the grant. Western Suffolk BOCES was awarded $500,000 a year for each of the next five school years (2021-2022 through 2025-2026).

The money allocated to each district will be based on the student population. Smithtown’s portion of the funds will support 115 teachers in computer science professional development. Beginning this summer, the Smithtown Central School District will be able to open up the training to 23
teachers per year.

Teachers will be involved in four days of professional development during summer, as well as 2-and-a-half days during the school year. Teachers will be trained in computer science by the company Mouse.

"Our goal is to further enhance our computer science offerings here in Smithtown as well as support teachers in the delivery of our Project Lead the Way program," said Paul Strader, Smithtown Central School District’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and assessment.

This summer, the district will offer the training to interested Kindergarten through 5th-grade STEM specialists, K through 8 library media specialists, middle school math teachers and K through 5 elementary classroom teachers.

The pool of teachers offered the developmental courses will be expanded each school year. Teachers will receive a stipend from the grant for participating. Following the training, the teachers are projected to deliver at least 15 to 20 computer science-based lessons.