SOUTHWICK – During the Jan. 12 Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District (STGRSD) School Committee meeting, the committee heard a presentation about the Massachusetts Civics Project and received an update on COVID-19 numbers in the district.

STGRSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jenny Sullivan, explained that the Civics Project is required in schools as a part of the Massachusetts Acts of 2018.

“The Civics Project is mandated through Chapter 296 of the Acts of 2018 and it’s an act to promote and enhance student engagement. The project is among several provisions that are meant to encourage civic engagement among our students,” she said.

Sullivan explained that the project is implemented during grade 8 and during grade 12 English Language Arts.

Instead of testing students at the end of the civics course, Sullivan said the project is all about judging their growth.

“Rather than assessing the students on a final product or a change they made based on a cause that’s important to them, we’re actually giving them multiple opportunities throughout the project to demonstrate growth in areas such as building civic knowledge, developing and practicing civil skills, developing literacy skills, and also digital media literacy skills,” she said.

Sullivan said that the work for the project lies mostly with the students as teachers set the process and are there to merely guide the students along the way.

“The work that the teachers are doing is putting the process in place, the students themselves will be choosing which topics they decide to take on and the teachers will help guide them through that process,” she said.

While teachers have more of a guiding role, Sullivan said they should model the appropriate behavior for civics discussions and parents should engage in civics conversations at home in a positive way.

“Teachers will be modeling for our students what productive civil discourse looks like, especially when engaging with those who hold opposing positions. For our parents and families back home, you can be engaging your children in respectful, evidence-based discussions around topics of civil discourse while maintaining a positive and respectful tone,” she said.

Because the 2020-2021 school year is the first year of the project’s implementation, Sullivan said the district will be learning as they go.

“This will be a work in progress, this year we are just going to be trying some things out, keeping it as simple as possible and learning as we go,” she said.

The committee also agreed to lower the athletic fees to the 2019-2020 school year rate, which dropped the hockey fee to $350 from $450, skiing to $100 from $150, and all other sports to $50 from $100.

During her regular report, Superintendent Jennifer Willard said there were still multiple COVID-19 cases at two of the district’s schools.

“We are still seeing multiple cases at both Southwick Regional School and Powder Mill School. As of now, we are part of that spike that is happening across the country. We are seeing increased cases of COVID and we are doing everything we can to get our students back,” she said.

Willard added that the district was able to bring back students in the Substantially Separate program at both Southwick Regional School and at Woodland School.

The STGRSD School Committee next meets on Feb. 2.