WIBX Exclusive: Utica Petitioning to Delay Extended Learning Grant [VIDEO]

Utica is asking the state to delay acceptance of the Extended Learning Time Grant.

WIBX broke the story earlier this week that the Utica City School District had received a $4.1 million grant to extend the school year by three hundred hours.

To implement the grant, the district has fewer than 60 days to finalize details and communicate those details to all involved prior to the start of the school year on September 4, 2014.

Utica City School Board President Christopher Salatino says, "It's really a lifestyle change (for everyone involved)," and because of that, officials say, they need more time to accommodate the 90-minute increase mandated by acceptance of the grant.

Salatino says that officials with the New York State Department of Education, which administers the grant, agree with Utica administrators in principle.  Whether that will result in a delay, though, he does not know.  As it stands right now, the grant moves forward and the five affected schools will still have longer days beginning in September 2014.

Once the plan is implemented, officials say it will succeed enhancing education in the city.  Of the grant, Utica School City School District Superintendent Bruce Karam says, once it is implemented, "It will work."

Whether the plan to delay will work as well remains to be seen.

Of note: Central Valley Central School District Superintendent Cosimo Tangorra, Jr. has been named Deputy Commissioner of Education for Pre-School Through Grade 12.  You can read the full story below.

Original Story:

Utica Children Working 9 to 5 Beginning in September

Clearing Up the Confusion: Utica's Extended Day

Central Valley's Super, Cosimo Tangorra, Named NYS Deputy Commissioner of Education for Pre-School Through Grade 12