S.D. 24 wins $30k Follett Challenge prize

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Competing against hundreds of school districts across North America, School District 24 has been named a Follett Challenge semifinalist, and will receive a $30,000 prize in books and educational materials.

The announcement was made on the company’s website, and School District 24 was the top semifinalist winner in the elementary-school category. The other two semifinalists included Regina Catholic School Division in Saskatchewan, Canada; and Lindblom Math and Science Academy/Chicago Public Schools in Chicago, Ill. The win also means the district is in the running to snag the competition’s grand prize of $60,000 in materials, the final results of which will be revealed on April 24.

“This is something that the district has competed in before, and they’ve been acknowledged before but not at this level,” said District 24 Schools Superintendent Dr. Donald Sturz. “ … It’s really huge.”

As part of the competition, participating school districts produced a video submission that residents, students and teachers had the opportunity to vote on for a week through Follett’s website, with the top vote-getters receiving prizes in books and educational materials.

In Valley Stream, School District 24’s three library media specialists — Stephanie Cuozzo, Karen Mylan and Kate Lallier — banded together to produce a video titled “Breaking into the Library,” an escape-room-inspired short film, which featured children collaborating to solve puzzles and open a locked box.

“It was so surreal,” Cuozzo, Brooklyn Avenue’s library media specialist said of the win. “The students were over the moon.”

She said that in addition to the books and educational materials, the school district’s students will be treated to a visit from reknowned American poet and children’s author Kwame Alexander.

“They say it takes a village,” Cuozzo said of the community’s efforts to make the win possible, “and it turns out we have a really great village.”