Schools to Get Grants From Board Member

Buying petri dishes and dictionaries and hiring tutors for an after-school homework club are a few of the ways area schools will be spending grant money received from Los Angeles Unified School District board member Valerie Fields.

A total of $43,405 will be awarded to 23 schools, including 13 in the San Fernando Valley, at a ceremony today at district headquarters in Los Angeles.

Fields, who became a board member in 1997, established the grant program after visiting schools in her area and seeing their needs. Of the 110 schools in District 4, which covers the West Valley and the Westside, about 50 applied, field deputy Broc Coward said.

The grant money will come from Fields’ discretionary funds, money allotted to each board member that is typically used to provide buses for field trips or send students to a special event.

Thoreau High School, a continuation school in Woodland Hills, will receive $2,000 to be spent on computer software, science equipment and books, such as “Women Scientists Who Won the Nobel Prize.”

“It’s a real luxury to be able to purchase technology to enhance our program,” Principal Ann Tash said.

The other Valley schools that received grants are Calabash Street Elementary in Woodland Hills, $300; Calvert Street Elementary in Woodland Hills, $2,000; Canoga Park Children’s Center in Canoga Park, $2,000; Columbus Middle in Canoga Park, $2,000; Fullbright Avenue Elementary in Canoga Park, $1,885; Justice Street Elementary in West Hills, $2,000; Pomelo Drive Elementary in West Hills, $2,000; Serrania Avenue Elementary in Woodland Hills, $2,000; Wilbur Avenue Elementary in Tarzana, $1,920; Woodland Hills Elementary, $2,000; and Woodlake Avenue Elementary in Woodland Hills, $2,000.

A second round of grant applications will go out in about a month. In total, Fields has dedicated $80,000 toward the grants, amounting to more than half her discretionary funds, Coward said.