Bangor Area School District Educational Foundation Awards $7,000 in Teacher Grants to Fund Special Projects

The Bangor Area School District Educational Foundation, whose goal is to enhance the educational quality of students and improve the overall community, awarded $7,000 in teacher grants to fund special projects in the Bangor Area School District for the 2017-2018 academic year.  ​

Through the Foundation’s fund-raising efforts and investment success, the Teacher Grant Program was made available for the first time this year.  The Teacher Grant program is intended to cover initiatives and programs that are outside of the typical school budget. Fourteen applications were received after board members from The Foundation presented the Teacher Grant Program to the faculty at each of the five schools last spring. A committee, which consisted of four board members from The Foundation, reviewed each application and chose the recipients based on the overall impact for the students and community as well as the creative and innovative aspects of each program. This year’s recipients and their programs are as follows:  Patricia Rutt, 5 Points Elementary: Mobile Agricultural Education Science Lab; Angela Ronco, DeFranco Elementary: Science in the House; Adam Raines, Senior High: Virtual Business Sports & Entertainment Program in Marketing Class; James Burke DeFranco, 5 Points and Washington Elementary: Programming in the Classroom; Angela Ronco, DeFranco Elementary: Accessing Text for all Students.
 
Angela Ronco, a fifth grade teacher at DeFranco Elementry, who received two grants this year said, “Thanks to the generosity of the BASD Education Foundation, the 5th grade language arts classrooms at DeFranco have received listening centers!  The students enjoy listening to books with their peers for enjoyment, and the centers are also very helpful to allow students to experience books that may be above their independent reading level.  The centers are very useful for differentiating reading materials and allowing student access to books on their level.  Children at all levels love to be read to, so they really enjoy the listening centers.”

The Bangor Area School District Educational Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Founded in the Spring of 1997, The Foundation’s mission is to support learning for the children and adults of the Bangor Area School District by funding activities and culturally enriching programs, community events, student scholarships, teacher grant projects and academic awards. The Foundation oversees the financial aspect of the various scholarships that are presented to district students each year.  The two largest awards are the Wolf and Trigiani scholarships. Scholarships and the Teacher Grant program are made available through donor contributions and fundraising efforts of The Foundation. Should you be interested in getting involved or to make a donation, contact Deanna Ruzanski, Executive Director, at 610-730-8408 or d[email protected].