Village schools received a big check — $63,215 — from the Rockville Centre Education Foundation at the Board of Education meeting on June 4.
Foundation trustees approved grants totaling more than $30,000 for Covert, Watson and Riverside elementary schools, South Side Middle School and South Side High School at its May 15 Board of Directors meeting.
The single, largest grant the foundation has ever awarded will fund the "STEAM" Lab — a new technology lab for district students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades. "STEAM" is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.
This computer lab is being designed to provide middle school students with the tools and methods of studio-based education, offering them new models for the creative problem-solving and flexible thinking skills
required to succeed in today's world. As an example, the digital photography unit will now be able to incorporate art, technology, the science of how light and exposure work, along with the Geometry of photography with angles of the sun. The lab will be ready in September.
In a written statement describing the foundation's goal in funding such innovative projects, Education Foundation President Ron Carman said, "Science, technology, engineering and math drive innovation and our nation's competitiveness. By expanding our children's skills and knowledge in these disciplines and in the arts, we give them the tools to continue to grow and learn. The awarding of this grant to create a STEAM lab at our middle school is at the core of the foundation's mission to enrich the education of our community's greatest resource: our children. We urge our teachers to continue to think of new and creative opportunities to expand their students' classroom experience. Our Board of Directors will work hard to raise the funds to support such efforts."
The organization’s major fundraiser is its annual gala, set for April 20, 2013. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who attended Rockville Centre schools, will be the gala honoree.
