WESTON —Two elementary schools in South Florida and one in Jacksonville will each receive a $50,000 grant from the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, which provides educational resources to underfunded schools.
The funds will help the schools acquire technology, books, arts material and educational products designed to improve reading skills and proficiency in math and science.
The selected elementary schools are Annabel C. Perry K-6 Center in Miramar, Myrtle Grove K-8 Center in Miami Gardens and Reynolds Lane Elementary School in Jacksonville. Six other schools around the country will also receive a share of the more than $500,000 in grants that the Leonore Annenberg School Fund has allocated for 2015.
The Council for Educational Change, a statewide nonprofit organization that serves as a catalyst for change and a conduit of resources, successfully nominated the three schools for the grant awards.
“These grants will help the schools come up with the resources needed to upgrade educational technology and foster the arts at a time when public funding is dwindling,” said Elaine Liftin, the council’s president and executive director. “We are very excited that the council was able to help these schools.”
The announcement comes at the right time for the Annabel C. Perry Elementary School, which is expanding to seventh grade in the upcoming school year. The grant money will help the school buy interactive tables, where up to six students at a time can collaborate on projects, as well as buy whiteboards and slates.
Myrtle Grove plans to invest the grant money to strengthen its Reader’s Theater literacy program, which uses nursery rhymes, poetry anthologies, play scripts and musical instruments for theater productions that seek to improve fluency and vocabulary.
Reynolds Lane plans to invest the funds in Lego educational projects and nonfiction classroom libraries. Lego products are designed to improve children’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Since 2009, Florida has received $1.11 million in Leonore Annenberg School Fund grants to assist in funding STEM literacy initiatives, media centers, science and technology labs and more. The Council’s close ties to the Leonore Annenberg School Fund have facilitated the grant application process for schools across Florida.
“In 1999, the late philanthropists Walter Annenberg and Leonard Miller created the South Florida Annenberg Challenge, a regional initiative designed to improve student achievement and career readiness,” said Gail C. Levin, director of the Leonore Annenberg Scholarship, Fellowship and School Funds. “Today, the successor organization, the Council for Educational Change (CEC), focuses statewide on school-based reform and educational policy, and members of the Miller family, together with the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, continue the legacy of the founders. The school fund’s three new grants to CEC will enable hundreds of students to benefit from the continuing collaboration.”
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