When this time of year rolls around, I always think I smell freshly sharpened pencils at every turn. Like me, both students and their families are mentally gearing up for the new school year, but the fact is, preparations have been underway since June.

Yes, it was a busy summer at the Brunswick School District. In addition to new staffers, creative planning and numerous grant awards from the Maine Department of Education and Brunswick Community Education Foundation,  the BSD is bringing next-level, innovative programming to our schools in the year ahead.

Phillip Potenziano is superintendent of the Brunswick School Department. Contributed

Here are some of the summer highlights:

Annie Young was named interim principal at Kate Furbish Elementary School. She has 20-plus years of teaching and administrative experience and was most recently the assistant principal at Kate Furbish Elementary School for three years.

Katelin Urgese is our new Brunswick High School dean of student supports and engagement. Katelin comes to Brunswick from the Lewiston School Department. During her 14 years in Lewiston, she served as a school counselor, Aspirations Program coordinator and most recently as director of student services.

The Brunswick Community of Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to Brunswick’s public school students and teachers, awarded numerous grants to Brunswick schools and the district. Here is a sampling of the innovative programs funded by these grants.

Four were awarded to Kate Furbish Elementary School for:

• Ruth’s Reusable Resources Program, which provides cost-effective ways to put novel resources in the hands of staff so they can provide students with developmentally appropriate learning opportunities.

• Can You Dig It worm composting project, which explores composting from A to Z.

• Readers in Kindergarten, to support our youngest readers with high-quality, interesting text.

• First Language Literacy for English Learners program, which provides the opportunity to purchase books in students’ home language.

Another grant recipient was Harriett Beecher Stowe Elementary School’s Survival Project, which allows teachers to investigate how the theme of survival can be applied to subject areas and real-life situations, and the Brunswick Junior High Archeology Museum to help sixth-graders create an accurate facsimile of ancient artifacts.

At Brunswick High School, a grant was awarded to the cross-disciplinary sophomore learning project, which assists sophomores as they confront and discuss meaningful ethical questions.

The Brunswick School District Speaker Series, designed for students, parents, staff, and the greater community, also was a grant recipient.

BSD also received two grants totaling approximately $500,000 from the Maine Department of Education. The first was for the newly proposed outdoor learning spaces at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School. The grant provides place-based hands-on learning resources for children and teachers and nature-based play areas, eliminates barriers to accessibility and will strengthen local ecological systems. HBS students and teachers, in partnership with Cathance River Education Alliance Education Center, will participate in outdoor science.

The second goes to the Statewide Expansion of Extended Learning Opportunity Programming. Brunswick High School will use the grant funding to expand its existing ELO program. Activities will include developing a “turnkey” ELO curriculum students can use with a range of employers, addressing transportation needs (busing and taxi vouchers), and providing stipends to students for their paid work experiences. BHS will also develop a summer credit-bearing ELO that will provide students a small stipend ($100, tentatively) for participating in career exploration field trips (but does not include work experience).

It was an eventful, inspiring and productive summer, and I look forward to a school year full of other great news that I can’t wait to share with you. In fact, I’ll be launching a monthly podcast this month called the Brunswick Buzz that will address education in the Brunswick community and beyond. If you missed my teaser introduction episode, which was published on Aug. 8, you can find it wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Stay tuned!