Whiting School Receives $15,000 Technology Grant

The Whiting School has received a $15,000 model classroom grant check that will transform the school’s old computer lab into an electronic learning center with wireless technology.

Kathy Durante of the OceanFirst Foundation presented Whiting School Principal Frances Scudese with the check at the December meeting of the Manchester Township Board of Education.

The grant is for the school’s Ultimate Learning Center project. The project will involve the use of at least 10 Apple iPads, and an Epsom Brightlink projector, school officials said.

In addition to the technology equipment, the grant will pay for four teachers to attend iPad seminars so they can share what they learn with their colleagues.

Durante said that choosing the OceanFirst Model Classroom grant recipients was difficult, with 72 schools applying for 15 grants this year.

“Sometimes the choices are easy, though, when there’s good quality,” she said, telling Scudese that Whiting’s proposal was of very high quality.

Scudese gave credit to the teachers who wrote the winning proposal: fourth-grade Teacher Tracy Kiernan, second-grade Teacher Lindsay Yarnold and Media Center Specialist Karen Enggren.

Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway also thanked OceanFirst on behalf of the BOE. “I can’t overestimate the impact you have,” he said.

Whiting School’s computer lab was actually just a regular classroom that, 14 years ago, was outfitted with computers on tables lining the four walls. “The room was never really renovated as a true lab and gets little use beyond the one day per week that technology classes are taught there,” said Enggren.

The grant will pay for 10 Apple iPads, but the plan is to eventually have a full class set of 25. This will be accomplished in part by future school budgets and supplemented by additional grants and donations.