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Calabassas third grade teacher Deborah Wine keeps her students well... (Bill Lovejoy/Sentinel)

WATSONVILLE

During the next three years, Calabasas Elementary School will get $2 million in federal money to improve student achievement.

The extra money will pay for three additional teachers to boost the literacy skills of struggling students and to organize and train parents to help out at school and with their children's assignments at home.

Principal Terry Eastman also will pay classroom teachers to work longer so they can help colleagues in an after-school program reinforce lessons taught earlier in the day. There's also money to provide teachers with training and coaching.

"I'm thrilled," Eastman said after the grant was announced Wednesday. "This is going to help us a lot."

But Calabasas, which was eligible for the grant because in March