IRVINE : Schools Awarded $40,000 in Grants

The Irvine Education Foundation awarded teachers about $40,000 in grants Thursday to pay for educational equipment and programs that the Irvine Unified School District could not afford to fund.

The foundation, which solicits donations from local corporations and awards the money annually to teachers in “mini-grants,” distributed the money to teachers at a ceremony in Irvine. A committee of parents from each school had chosen which of the $75,000 in grant requests to fund this year, based on need and equity at each school, said Elizabeth Thomas, executive director of the nonprofit foundation.

Awards this year ranged from $119 to buy world population data sheets for freshmen at Woodbridge High School to a $2,000 grant for Irvine High School teachers to buy a computer system that will display graphics to help students visualize subjects like geometry.

The grants allow teachers to buy materials or conduct programs that otherwise would be unaffordable because of tight budgets, said Barbara Reynolds, a sixth-grade teacher at El Camino Real Elementary School. Reynolds, along with fellow teacher Randy Coleman, received a $790 grant to purchase materials to start an Odyssey of the Mind team for third- through sixth-graders at the school. The program helps teach students to think creatively and includes local and national problem-solving competitions.

The grants will also help third-grade students at Springbrook Elementary School to continue a science “exchange program” with Woodbridge High School. The $1,000 grant allows the students to travel to the high school about four times a year, where they work one-on-one with high school science students.

Funds for the grants came from a $25,856 donation from the Irvine Co., $1,875 from Pacific Bell, and smaller grants from companies including Pacific Mutual and William N. Crosby Law Corp.