With great pressure on the school district to keep costs down without compromising education, the Great Neck Board of Education is grateful for the generous donations from local individuals and organizations that help maintain the schools’ outstanding extracurricular offerings.
The Rotary Club of Gold Coast Lake Success, Sherman Orthodontics and Dr. and Mrs. Jay Bosworth made donations in support of the Robotics Club. Great Neck teams have performed well in robotics competitions and the donors wanted to offset some of the many costs of the successful program.
Scholars and educators sometimes need direct financial support. Monetary donations were offered to the Lewis E. Love Memorial Teaching Award from Charles B. Ortner, Mark Schoenber and John J. Marcus; The Marjorie Urciuoli Senior Award from The Urciuoli Family Charitable Fund; Marianne Truglio Memorial Award from Anthony Truglio.
The Great Neck South Middle School PTA donated $12,512 towards the purchase of 40 node chairs and accompanying tops to provide a more collaborative workspace for the students. South Middle PTA President Vicki Vlantis said that this is important to accommodate “multiple learners” in collaborative situations.
The Lakeville Elementary School PTA donated approximately 10 iPads which covers for student use. The donation was $5000.
The John F. Kennedy Elementary School PTA donated five iPad covers to be used by students in the school’s Math Lab.
Also approved at the meeting: The Great Neck Spirits Special Olympics basketball program celebrates its 20th anniversary in June 2014 and chose to celebrate this event with a party and dedication of a commemorative plaque to the Great Neck North High School. The purpose of the plaque is to recognize the 500 or so high school volunteers who have donated their time to these Special Olympics over the past 20 years, and to honor the collaboration between the students, athletes, coaches, the school system and the community.
Luckily, this donation is already in compliance with the newly adopted school district policy on naming school grounds.
All of the requests from these donors for permission to give these gifts were approved by the Board of Education at its March 31 meeting.
