FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Six Schools to Split Foundation Grants

Children in the Fountain Valley School District were the big winners last month as the Fountain Valley Educational Foundation awarded nine grants totaling about $15,000 to pay for classroom programs at six schools.

In its dozen years in existence, the foundation has raised $181,000 to enhance the quality of education in district schools, said Debbi Setterquist, foundation president and a second-grade teacher.

Setterquist said the grant money “allows an individual teacher to pursue over and above what is already provided as part of the curriculum.”

This year, the foundation received 28 grant applications, Setterquist said.

The foundation announced the recipients of the grant money at a Fountain Valley School District Board of Trustees meeting on April 28.

The largest grant, totaling $3,000, was awarded to teachers at Fred Moiola Elementary School for a program on conflict resolution and peer mediation.

The program teaches students how to solve their problems through effective communication skills without using violence, said fifth-grade teacher Suzanne Green, who is among four teachers coordinating the program.

Green said the grant money will be used to modify the existing program as well as to expand it to other schools.

Other schools receiving grant money for educational programming included:

* James H. Cox Elementary School, math lab materials and hardware and software for a multimedia computer research laboratory for the school library.

* Kasuo Masuda Middle School, mathematics software.

* Isojiro Oka Elementary School, math lab materials.

* Samuel E. Talbert Middle School, software and other high-tech equipment for science, history and English programs.

* Hisamatsu Tamura Elementary School, science materials for physical and natural science experiments and software for computer literacy, math and science programs.