Dickinson School Trust funds extra programs at high and middle schools |
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Dec. 14, 2011
By Debbie Gardner
Assistant Editor
SOUTHWICK — Two local teachers will be able to enhance the learning experience for their students, thanks to grants provided through the Dickinson School Trust.
Ken Haar, a trustee with the Dickinson School Trust, said Ann Murphy, who teaches English at Southwick-Tolland Regional High School, was awarded $625 to invite selected Western Massachusetts writers to the school for a workshop titled “Literary Voices of the Pioneer Valley.”
“She’s bringing a panel of local authors to the school to work with students [and discuss] the process of being an author,” Haar explained.
The second award, for $500, will fund Powder Mill Middle School social studies teacher Caren Anne Harrington’s use of Civil War re-enactors to help her students better understand the people and times they are studying.
“She uses a re-enactor’s campsite on the grounds of the school. Students will get to participate and learn some of the more mundane aspects of life in the 18th century,” Haar said.
The two projects were selected from the applications submitted by teachers at the beginning of the year. Haar said all projects had to be submitted for review by Oct. 1. Murphy and Harrington received their grants during a recent School Committee meeting.
Haar said the grant money is provided annually through the interest on a trust established in 1820 by Southwick resident Richard Dickinson
“He bequeathed his property to the town for the support of education,” Haar said, adding that the property sale created a trust with a principal of $13,000. “Until the 1870s, [the trust’s interest] provided the biggest piece of Southwick’s school budget.”
He said the interest has been used to fund various education measures over the years, from preserving an eighth grade field hockey team to simply supplementing the town’s school budget. Eight years ago, when he, Dean Rankin and Gene Theroux took over as trustees for the fund, they began using the money to help provide the town’s teachers with funding for programs that went above and beyond the limitations of school budgets.
“We’re always looking to enhance the amount of money in the fund,” Haar said. “There are some local education trusts that do similar things in a much grander scale.”
He said one of the difficulties in growing the trust is the historical structure of it, which requires that trustees be elected to their posts. With other local trusts, everyone, including board of trustee members, is a volunteer and there is no political connection.
“It would be wonderful if we could enhance [the trust] in some way and get people to do fundraising,” Haar said.
He said individuals interested in supporting the trust so that it can fund a greater number of teacher-inspired programs next year may send checks, made out to the Dickinson School Trust, to the Southwick Town Hall, 454 College Highway, Southwick, MA 01077.
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