FARMINGTON — The Regional School Unit 9 board gave W.G. Mallett School Principal Tracy Williams permission Tuesday night to submit an AmeriCorps grant application for a person to help at the Farmington school next year.

The school serves prekindergarten through second-grade students in the Farmington area.

If the grant is approved, the person would provide additional support to students, Williams told the board.

It would not be a teaching position, she said.

The AmeriCorps person would help review subjects, support the home reading or math work some students don’t have support for, and help practice skills in math and literacy, Williams said.

The person would be assigned a group of about 15 to 20 students to work with consistently, she said.

The person would receive training by very skilled staff and would acquire a great set of skills, she said.

“We would be able to set up interviews after people are successfully screened by AmeriCorps,” she said.

Williams believes they would find out in late April or early May about proceeding with that part.

“We do have some interest already,” she said.

The cost would be $18,000, plus about $2,000 in benefits. AmeriCorps would need a $7,000 contribution from the district toward the $20,000, she said.

Williams has already talked with the school’s PTA, and members would be willing to contribute about $3,000, possibly a little more, toward the cost, she said.

The school received a $4,000 anonymous donation last year and some of that could be put toward the cost, she said.

The position would run from Aug. 1 to July 2016.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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