LIVERMORE – SAD 36 has been awarded a $609,000 grant to ultimately have all students reading on grade level by the end of third grade.

The Livermore Elementary School was one of six schools in the state to receive a Maine Reading First grant. Grant money is dispersed over three years.

The school’s staff has continually worked to improve students’ literacy skills, and this puts the finishing touches on those efforts, said literacy specialist Pam Hamilton. She wrote the grant with input from a leadership team.

“It’s a very generous amount of money with already predetermined strict guidelines,” Livermore Elementary School Principal Terrie Roberts said.

The grant gives the district an opportunity to provide an “enormous” amount of literature training for kindergarten through third-grade teachers to improve reading instruction, Roberts said.

Teachers, administrators and support staff will receive training in scientifically-based reading research practices.

The money will also be used to buy the Houghton Mifflin Series, a comprehensive reading program, which would be used as the primary means of instruction. The series cost nearly $30,000, Hamilton said.

This would enable the school staff to make appropriate decisions in terms of literacy development, instruction and assessment of students, Hamilton said.

The program follows the suggested Maine Department of Education guidelines.

Each teacher would receive a Palm Pilot that would be used for assessments, Roberts said.

Newly appointed literacy coordinator Karen Hardy will attend a seven-week training in Literacy Collaborative at the University of Maine in Orono and then teach a graduate course to kindergarten through third-grade teachers, Hamilton said.

The school will also have the Reading Recovery program that focuses on first-graders.

Hardy, a fifth-grade teacher, would be a literacy coordinator half the time and teacher the rest.

Amanda Winslow would be a half-time Reading Recovery teacher and half-time fifth-grade teacher.

Maggie Davis, a special education teacher, would be a half-time Reading Recovery teacher paid by federal Title I funds.

The money saved in this year’s budget, Hamilton said, would be used to buy the reading series for the fourth- and fifth-grades to have a consistent reading program throughout the school.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Denise Rodzen, chairwoman of the SAD 36 Board of Directors, said of the grant. “I think it obviously shows that our district is moving in the right direction and we’re doing everything possible to make sure we continue the best education for our students without having to go to the taxpayers year after year after year.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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