Thursday, October 1, 2026
The H. Frank Carey High School PTSA has received a $3,500 grant to improve the school’s Zen Room and create a dedicated space where students can step away, decompress and work through grief, loss and difficult transitions.
The grant, awarded by the National PTA’s 2026-27 The Middle Ground program, was announced in July. Carey was among 15 middle and high schools nationwide selected to receive the funding.
Former PTSA Co-presidents Kim Gaudiosi and Christina DeCastro helped secure the grant during their two-year tenure. Gaudiosi’s daughter, Annie, graduated in June, marking the end of Kim’s time as a PTSA parent leader, while DeCastro remains involved as parliamentarian.
The project is being developed alongside the school’s administration and guidance department, a partnership Gaudiosi and DeCastro said has been key to everything the PTSA has accomplished. “None of it would have happened without the partnership that we have with our principal, our administrators and the entire guidance office,” Gaudiosi said. “All of these programs encompass them, in addition to the rest of our school community.”
DeCastro said that Principal Jennifer Alaimo has been especially supportive of the PTSA’s ideas, including programs that take place during the school day.
The guidance department has also been involved in planning the project. The PTSA worked with Julie Elena, the head of guidance, to determine how the grant could be used to improve the Zen Room and make it more useful to students.
The room has been in existence for several years, but the grant will give the PTSA and guidance department the opportunity to expand the space and make it specifically focused on grief and loss.
For the PTSA, “loss” can mean much more than losing a loved one. “It can be the loss of a relationship,” Gaudiosi said. “It can be the loss of peer relationships. It definitely can be a loss of a family member, but it can also be a loss of a community.”
Students may experience that sense of loss when friendships change, or when they move from one environment to another, experience failure or face changes in their family or financial situation. Gaudiosi also pointed to the pandemic, and the ways in which it changed the way students interacted with one another and the school community.
The grant specifically targets seventh- and eighth-graders, who are navigating the transition into a combined middle and high school environment. But the room will also be available to students through high school.
The PTSA hopes to use the funding to improve the room’s furniture, lighting and atmosphere, while adding materials that can help students work through difficult emotions and situations. “What we’re hoping for is that it’s a dedicated space,” Gaudiosi said, and “that students can come and go if they need to decompress, they need an opportunity to slow the pace down, to take a breath.”
The planning process is now getting underway. The PTSA is working with the administration and the guidance department to determine what the space will ultimately include. The goal is to have the program operating by February and to complete the project by May.
The PTSA’s previous programs have also relied heavily on support from school staff. DeCastro and Gaudiosi credited Rosemary Merino, the student activities director, for encouraging students to participate and take on leadership roles. That student involvement has been a major focus since Gaudiosi and DeCastro became co-presidents. Coming out of the pandemic, they wanted to find ways to make the organization more relevant to older students while giving them opportunities to lead.
“As a PTSA, we were just like, ‘What can we do for the kids?’” DeCastro said.
That question led to several grant-funded programs, including a Creative Kindness program, sponsored by TikTok and the national PTA. Students helped run a Kindness Cafe during the school day, while another event brought students and parents together for a discussion about internet safety.
The PTSA later participated in a Build Up and Belong program, focused on using digital communities to create a stronger sense of belonging. Each program gave the organization more opportunities to hear directly from students about what they needed from their school community.
“The more you talk to students, the more you learn from them,” Gaudiosi said. “Being able to gather information specifically from students is going to make our PTSA a lot more effective.”
Now, the hope is that the Zen Room will give students another resource they can turn to when they are overwhelmed. “It’s, like, just to be a support for them,” DeCastro said. “To recognize, you know what? I need to go chill. I’m overwhelmed right now. Let me go try to find this space.”
Gaudiosi and DeCastro’s work with the PTSA will now continue under the leadership of new Co-presidents Kristin Cirotti and Maria Glaviano. The grant is another step in the PTSA’s ongoing effort to create programs and spaces that give students the support they need.
