GLENDALE : Firm to Award Grants to 9 School Projects

Funding from a national financial firm will be used to sponsor a family reading party, cameras and science field trips for Glendale elementary schoolchildren, officials said Friday.

Representatives from Heller Financial Inc., which has a branch office in Glendale, will award $10,000 to the Glendale Unified School District on Monday as part of the Grants for Excellence in Education program, district spokesman Vic Pallos said.

The district-sponsored program seeks to find local businesses and service groups to financially assist schools with education needs. In June, Chicago-based Heller Financial agreed to give out the first $10,000 in grants, Pallos said.

Elementary schoolteachers who want to pitch educational project ideas were given applications in September. A panel reviewed 20 proposals and decided to fund nine projects involving 17 teachers.

The approved applications ranged in cost from $915 to $1,500. Most of the money will be spent on reading materials and equipment, such as computer hardware, briefcases and cameras.

A $1,500 grant, for example, will allow students at Balboa School to visit Scholl Canyon Landfill and receive hands-on lessons in ecology. A $1,067 grant will mean that Cerritos School can invite families to the classroom for an hourlong reading party, officials said.

“We’re real excited,” said Cristina Aguilar Silver, a second- and third-grade Spanish bilingual teacher from Edison School.

Silver and teacher Pamela Gorsuch will receive $1,376 to buy English and Spanish language children’s books for parents to borrow and take home for their children to read. Teachers will review with parents once a week ways to spend the reading time with their children.

“We couldn’t afford the books (before),” Silver said. The program “gives the parents a connection to the school and makes them feel they’re a participant.”

Others receiving grants are Lincoln, Mountain Avenue, Monte Vista, R. D. White and Marshall elementary schools.