WOONSOCKET — Governor Carcieri together with the state Department of Education and the Rhode Island Afterschool Plus Alliance announced a $100,000 grant to help four urban schools extend the school day and rethink the way the day is organized.

Funded by the General Assembly, the money will go to Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls, Veazie Street Elementary School and Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence and Citizens Memorial Elementary School in Woonsocket. Each school will use the planning grants to figure out how to expand the school day.

The possibilities include lengthening the actual school day, expanding the school year or developing an afterschool component like the Providence After-School Alliance. Each school’s planning team will include teachers, community organizations, after-school programs, parents, teachers unions and higher education.

At a news conference Monday in Woonsocket, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist said that the extended school day initiative is a key part of the state’s application for federal Race to the Top grants, which could bring anywhere from $20 million to $75 million to smaller states.

“Extended learning recognizes that there is more to learning than time spent in school,” Gist said at Citizens Elementary School. “This grant will help integrate what happens in our schools with other outside programs and weave them together in a way that is seamless.”

The call for expanded learning time comes from a recent report by the Rhode Island Urban Education Task Force, which recommended that the initiative be coordinated by Carcieri’s office, the Education Department and the Rhode Afterschool Plus Alliance. Technical assistance will be provided by the National Center on Time and Learning, which will receive $30,000 of the $100,000 grant, in addition to support from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

Jennifer Davis from the National Center on Time and Learning said Rhode Island is the first state this year to announce a statewide effort to extend the school day.

The interest in offering extended learning opportunities here in Rhode Island comes from the success of a Massachusetts program. In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to dramatically expand the school calendar. Ten schools in five districts added about two hours to the school day. Since then, the program has blossomed to include 11 districts serving more than 12,000 students.

Schools compete for state funds and winners receive about $1,300 per child to develop the program. Schools can choose to expand the school day, the school year or both.

“Today, in launching these planning grants,” Carcieri said, “we begin to more deeply engage our urban schools in both expanding the amount of learning time, as well as determining new and better ways that time can be used to support the development of our students.”

lborg@projo.com