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Teachers get funding for projects

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Laguna Beach teachers will be able to buy educational tools like a spectrophotometer and pay for simple things like equipment upgrades thanks to $82,417 in SchoolPower Endowment grants.

The Laguna-based charitable foundation gave 16 teachers money for supplemental educational projects that will have a direct impact on students, according to a news release.

The group’s officials meet annually with school staff and leaders to decide how funds should be allotted. The money is not meant to be used for basic instructional programs or school supplies.

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Laguna Beach High School teacher Jun Shen received the largest share of grant funding — $30,724. The money will go toward purchasing 70-inch flatscreen television monitors, which will take the place of projectors, Shen wrote in an email.

“TV’s have longer lifespans than projectors, are cheaper to maintain and have better picture quality,” Shen said. “Modern TV’s are also more readily able to connect wirelessly to online content and other devices.”

“This affects every high school student,” SchoolPower Executive Director Robin Rounaghi said of Shen’s grant.

“SchoolPower allows us to go beyond the walls of the classroom and explore,” Thurston Middle School science teacher Linda Hill-Lindsay said in the release. Hill-Lindsay applied for and received $2,425 for an iPad print station.

Laguna Beach High science instructor Steve Sogo received nearly $10,000 for use in his honors chemistry classes. The money will go toward purchasing a spectrophotometer, a machine that can detect wavelengths of light, such as infrared and ultraviolet, that are invisible to human eyes, Sogo wrote in an email.

Students will be able to measure concentrations of ions, such as copper and iron, in water samples, and caffeine content in soft drinks.

For a detailed list of the grants, visit the SchoolPower website at https://www.lbschoolpower.org.

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