Education foundation supports Howell schools
BY TOYNETT HALL
Staff Writer

HOWELL - Concepts and theories become tangible to Howell public school children as they receive instruction through innovative programs designed and funded by the Howell Township Education Foundation. The programs range from topics such as producing a movie, running a store, cooking a meal and many more.

The foundation's board of trustees, grant recipients and supporters joined together to celebrate the accomplishments of the foundation and to acknowledge the 2007-08 grant recipients during a recent social held at foundation Chairman Anthony Novembre's house.

"We thought this was a great way to end the year and bring everybody together while raising our awareness," Novembre said.

He said the foundation has dispersed about $22,000 in grants to current and past recipients. A new round of grants was expected to be announced at the June 20 meeting of the Board of Edu-cation.

Board of Trustees member Bernadine Borowick, a former language arts and social studies supervisor, said the grants that were chosen this year emphasized a variety of subject matters.

"A lot of them deal with special needs children and address subject areas such as reading, math, computers, science and cooking," Borowick said.

According to Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden, "The mission of the foundation is to grant money to teachers who come up with ideas that are beyond the scope of what the school system can fund. These are things that the district would not have had money to fund. We couldn't be more thrilled with the work of the foundation."

One of the grants for the 2007-08 school year was submitted by Jane Cheung of Howell Middle School South. The initiative is called "Hear Us Howell - The Sights and Sounds of Our Students."

According to information provided by the foundation, this grant will provide the opportunity for students to experience the next level in cutting edge technology of podcasting and vodcasting (voice and video broadcasts on the Internet).

Another program funded by the foundation was "Bring Weather into the Classroom." This program was submitted by Robert Young and Frank Spinillo of the Ramtown School. It has been designed to help enhance the fourth grade math, science, geography and technology curricula.

Programs that will be introduced for the 2007-08 school year are Roary's Reading and Writing Safari by Angela O'Cone and Sue Flitton, Adelphia School; Project C.A.R.E: Fostering Friendships, Strengthening Social Skills by A. Vollrath, D. Rochon, J. Forrest, and J. Dinnerman, Taunton School; iPods for ELLS by Stephani Abelson, Howell Middle School North.

Also, Criterion On-line Writing Evaluation Grant Extension by Sandy DeGrande, Howell Middle School South; Third Grade Weather Station by Kimberly Gaynor, Aldrich School; The Star-Spangled Banner Team by Larren Alspach, Howell Memorial Middle School; Odyssey of the Mind by Erin Allen and Tara Madison, Land O' Pines School.

And, Golden Retriever by Brooke Bocchetti, Greenville School; Planet Earth - A Visual Odyssey! by Matthew Gray, Southard School; Reading Ato Z Supplemental Reading Materials by Daryl Delaney, Lauren Rarron and Lauren Silver, Ramtown School.