Federal Education Officials to Visit Meriden Elementary Schools

• New full-day kindergarten wing, allowing for universal access to kindergarten
• New special education program for students with autism
• Tour of city/downtown redevelopment plans and integration of those with the efforts of the  Meriden Public Schools and Meriden Family Zone (winner of 2011 US Department of Education Promise Neighborhood Planning grant)
• Visit to a middle school and discussion of plans for new high schools in Meriden
• A tour of the downtown Meriden area will give Delisle an overview of ambitious city redevelopment plans and their integration with the efforts of the Meriden Public Schools and the Meriden Family Zone. 

A highly competitive Promise Neighborhood planning grant from the U.S. Department of Education, awarded to the Meriden Family Zone project in 2011, has funded collaborative efforts to improve educational outcomes for children in the Zone, a low-income area in downtown Meriden.

“Meriden’s creative use of in- and out-of-school evidence-based programs, data-driven decision making, meaningful parent engagement, broad community partnerships and links to private and public funding have led to measurable improvements in academic outcomes, school attendance and behaviors, and importantly, a strengthening of the Meriden community,” said Mark Benigni, Superintendent of Meriden Public Schools.

This is the second planned visit to Meriden by the federal education department.

In September 2012, Elizabeth Williamson, a senior educational program specialist for the U.S. Department of Education and Olga Pirela, from the Office of Communications and Outreach in Boston, visited two of the town’s elementary schools, the Meriden Hub and the Meriden Family Zone via a bus tour. Williamson and Pirela were impressed by the school district’s initiatives and collaboration with community organizations.

According to Marisol Estrada Soto, Chair of Meriden Children First, the parent organization of the Meriden Family Zone, Williamson and Pirela “expressed how impressed they were by the school district’s initiatives and collaboration with community organizations.”