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The long wait is over. Almost.
After two plus years and a nearly two hour presentation, the Winchester School Committee voted on March 26 to adopt a new literacy program, Arts & Letters, for the elementary grades.
“This afternoon we celebrate another milestone,” said Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Laurie Kirby.
But with $3.3 million worth of budget cuts on the School Committee table, the question becomes how to fund it.
When School Committee member Stefanie Mnayarji made the motion to accept the Elementary Literacy Team 2.0’s recommendation and adopt the Arts & Letters program, she included in the motion that they also support a separate article on the Town Meeting warrant to fund the implementation.
On April 16, the School Committee wasted no time voting to ask Town Meeting to fully fund the implementation to the tune of $598,540. It’s a lot, but it could have been worse.
In 2025, Town Meeting gave the schools $455,000 from free cash to fund the literacy pilot program.
Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett recently told the committee there was $50,000 remaining from that article and they could either turn the money back to the town or put it towards this year’s funding ask.
The committee agreed unanimously to subtract that amount from the final amount attached to this year’s warrant article, bringing the ask down from almost $650,000 to just under $600,000.
A long time coming
The parent group United for Literacy was already operating when Hackett became superintendent. In 2021, the group sent him a letter with 400 signatures attached raising concerns about the district’s literacy program.
Things came to a head after a 2024 Boston Globe article revealed that Winchester, along with more than 100 other districts across the Bay State, were using an early elementary reading curriculum that the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education considered low quality.
An early literacy team was formed, they poured over dozens of curricula, narrowed it down to fewer than a dozen then narrowed it down to two that were piloted over the past year.
Elementary Literacy Coordinator Melissa Newell said 100% of those who piloted the Arts & Letters curriculum recommended its adoption.
It’s magic
On March 26, nearly 20 educators testified to the magic of the Arts & Letters program that won over not just them, but students as well.
Piloteer Meg Bradford said she has been teaching at the Lincoln School for 20 years and has been through her share of curriculum changes, but now she feels what she’s doing really matters and is making a difference.
She said one of the most noticeable changes has been that “students are eagerly raising their hands. They’re immersed in compelling topics.”
Bradford said they’ve studied works of art, Greek myths and mythology and the modern words that sprang from it, re-enacted scenes from paintings or books, and the kids are so eager to talk about it all she sometimes has to prod them to move on.
“I had a student today say ‘I actually really like literacy now,’ and it was such a huge shift from where we started, just because of the rigor of the program that we are doing,” she said, admitting it was a bit of a shock at the beginning. “But we are in the routine, and I think it really captures their voices and how they feel about literacy now.”
Erin McCoy, also a piloteer at the Lincoln School, called it smart, brilliant curriculum that moves them away from teaching isolated skills. Rebecca Decaneas, a special education teacher at Ambrose Elementary said the fact that Arts & Letters has so many natural supports built into it makes it valuable for all students.
Piloteer Barbara Carolino, a multilingual learner teacher at the Muraco Elementary School, said because the program explicitly teaches speaking and listening skills, she has watched her Kindergarteners have some amazingly academic conversations.
She said not only are they turning and talking respectfully to each other, but they’re staying on topic and organizing their thoughts, which also translates to great writing.
Ambrose Elementary teacher Carlie Musto said she has also seen a growth that has made her students much more ready for middle school than in the past.
“I had a student tell me that he never understood how to write a conclusion paragraph before, but now it all makes sense, which is such a nice win,” she said.
Jen Dumas is a literacy coach at Lincoln Elementary and a former fifth-grade teacher at Muraco. She said she was eager last year to bring Arts & Letters forward to pilot, but this year is different.
“I’m sitting here tonight just hearing how important that has been, and l get emotional for each and every piloteer and person helping out,” she said. “It’s resonating and I’m so excited.”
A little more praise
While educators sang the praises of the new literacy program, Kirby took a minute to recognize Newell.
“She has been working so much behind the scenes, orchestrating all of this to make it happen, and she makes it look so easy,” she said.
And Hackett applauded the ELT 2.0 for their perseverance. He said looking back at 2024, the early literacy team was under a great deal of pressure to come up with a new program, implement it and fast.
“The fact that you withstood all that to do it right … made all the difference, and that needs to be celebrated and understood and appreciated, because that was not easy,” he said. “So thank you to all of you for your support.”
Newell said there was still plenty of work to do to get the new program implemented, including grade level meetings and professional development. But first, the program has to be funded and that will (or won’t) happen at Town Meeting.
Town Meeting opens Monday April 27 at 7 p.m. and meets on Mondays and Thursdays until all the articles are settled. The budget, however, will not be taken up until the Monday after the first of May, or May 4.
Chris Stevens is an award-winning journalist who has spent 25 years chasing, editing and photographing stories on the North Shore. She is the co-founder and managing editor of Gotta Know Medford.
