Chartwell School receives a $45 million gift, and plans to expand teacher literacy training.

A few months before its 40th anniversary, Chartwell School, a private school in Seaside focusing on students with dyslexia and other learning differences, received a $45 million donation from Charles “Chuck” and Claire Jacobson’s estate. Jacobson was a board member at Chartwell and was dyslexic. “[He] was very involved in our mission and what we do, because it’s the type of learner that he was,” says Danielle Patterson, head of the school.

Chartwell School started in 1983 with a teacher and six students; today the school has 180 students in grades 1 through 12.

The donation will support students at Chartwell and beyond. Funds will provide financial aid and go toward a new building allowing Chartwell’s high school to expand its athletic and STEM facilities; the new facility, now in its design phase, will increase the capacity for high school students from 70 to up to 300. Funds will also go to expanding Chartwell’s teacher training institute, where teachers from other private and public schools learn tools and techniques to increase literacy in their own classrooms.

The institute uses different methods, including the Orton-Gillingham approach for teaching kids with dyslexia, and the latest science around reading, such as research showing teachers should focus more on phonetics.

MPUSD teachers will attend Chartwell’s three-day training this summer and fall, with a focus on foundational skills for grades K-3. MPUSD will pay Chartwell $45,000 to train 105 elementary teachers. “The purpose is to develop our capacity to serve all readers well, particularly who struggle with early literacy,” MPUSD Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh says.