AUGUSTA – Commissioner Susan A. Gendron announces the Department of Education’s first 21 Century Community Learning Center Award recipients. The awards are for conducting after-school programs to serve students kindergarten through high school. The total to be awarded is $2,210,664, with each site receiving an average of $150,000.

Sites include the Auburn School Department, the Caribou School Department, the Ellsworth School Department, Greater Waterville Communities for Children, Mahoosuc Association 44, Maine Seacoast Missionary Society, SAD 3, SAD 11, SAD 15, SAD 17, SAD 26, SAD 55, SAD 59, Northern York County Family YMCA/Biddeford School Department, Portland Public Schools, River Coalition, Inc./Union 90, South Portland School Department and the University of Maine Farmington/SAD 9.

Funding comes from the United States Department of Education through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Title IVB.

Specific outcomes that sites are seeking to achieve are: to improve student academic achievement, to offer students an array of services, programs and activities to improve their health and well-being and to offer families opportunities for literacy and other related educational development to assist their children with learning and health promotion.

Sites will begin their work July 1 and will receive funding for three years. The potential for an additional two more years of reduced funding will depend on their progress in the first three years of the grant and on the availability of funds from the U.S. Department of Education.