High school art dept. to use grant for laptops

The West Hempstead High School department of Related Arts will soon purchase two MacBook Pro laptops for use by students, thanks to a $4,475 grant from Lowe’s home improvement store.

Department Director Julia Healy applied for the Toolbox for Education grant in October, after being alerted to it by a parent.

“They want a grant that isn’t just going to be a flash-in-the-pan kind of thing, where you would just use up the money and then you’d have nothing to show for it,” Healy recently told the Herald. “So, I thought, ‘Okay, what is it that my department needs?’ My department is, in my opinion, stellar, but we are under-equipped in terms of our technology.”

Healy decided to purchase a Macintosh laptop — a brand widely used by the “art world” — to introduce students to high-end software and painting programs. When the district’s information technology specialist explained that Mac-compatible software was already available at the Chestnut Street School’s new library-media center, Healy was able to free up some of the grant money and decided to purchase a second laptop.

As part of the Toolbox for Education grant, applicants must include a community element to their applications, Healy said. In her application, she said West Hempstead High School students would purchase lumber and casters at a local Lowe’s and create their own laptop carts with the help of Lowe’s staff.