May is a month of giving, and not just on Mother’s Day.
Ridgefield Public Schools received three gifts from the Ridgefield Education Foundation recently.
Avery Costigan, the non-profit foundation’s president, presented $1,500 for an elementary level e-Book collection in the library at Farmingville School, $750.04 for physic lab stations at Scotts Ridge Middle School and $2,310 for iPads to be used in science labs at the high school.
The board unanimously acceptions the donations following a 15-minute presentation that discussed the foundation’s progress over the past year.
The foundation was established in 2011 and consists of residents, teachers and administrators “whose mission is to strengthen the bridge between the community at large and our public schools by encouraging philanthropy to enhance the educational experiences of Ridgefield’s learners of all ages.”
“We’ve come a long way — we raised $4,560.04 this year which is more than double what we presented this time last year,” she said. “We are building slowly to help innovate Ridgefield Public Schools.”
She added that the education foundation differs from Parent Teacher Associations because their goal is “to move education forward.”
“Our criteria is always ‘Is this new? Is this different? Is this moving education forward? For all three of these gifts the answer is yes,” she said.
Ms. Costigan said the education foundation received nine grant requests over its second grant cycle but could only fund three.
“What we can fund is totally based on what comes in,” she informed the board. “These three projects met our criteria and allowed us to give a gift to each level of the school district.”
Her goal is to once again double the foundation’s total grant donation for the spring of 2014.
In addition, the foundation is planning multiple events in the upcoming year, including teacher appreciation awards this year, an innovation and science expo in the winter of 2014 and a RPS-hosted “Googleposium” on June 7, 2013, that will have teacher educate the public on Google technology.
“We are excited to help students gain a deeper education and support the schools and the town,” Ms. Costigan concluded.
For more information on the foundation, visit www.ridgefieldeducationfoundation.org.