Five schools in the Toms River Regional School District have received a total of $50,000 in grant funds from the OceanFirst Foundation.
The schools are the Beachwood Elementary School, the East Dover Elementary School, the Joseph A. Citta Elementary School, Silver Bay Elementary School and Toms River Intermediate South.
The schools each received $10,000, according to officials from the school district.
The grants are a part of the Model Classroom Grant Program. According to school district officials, the grant program is designed to support bold and innovative schools that have vision, creativity and desire to develop model classrooms for learning.
“This year colleagues from neighboring districts in three counties really upped their game. That makes me especially proud of the ideas each of these schools developed and the effort they put into their applications,” Assistant Superintendent of Schools Marc Natanagara said.
Natanagara said Educational Technology supervisor Tiffany Lucey helped with the school’s grant proposals.
Some of the ideas the entries included were spaces for virtual reality, social emotional learning, renovating old technology and real world-based literacy, according to the press release.
During an Oct. 17 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools David Healy said Toms River schools receiving grants like the ones from the OceanFirst Foundation are even more important now because of a reduction in state aid the district may see in upcoming years.
OceanFirst Chairman Christopher D. Maher said, “We understand the critical role the classroom plays in a student’s academic and lifelong success and also the challenges presented by limited resources. That’s why we’re proud to partner with local schools and to contribute the resources needed to develop creative solutions that help students and teachers succeed in the classroom and beyond the school walls.”
The OceanFirst Foundation is a nonprofit that provides grants to organizations that meet community needs within the OceanFirst Bank footprint, according to the press release.
Administrators in 12 of the district’s 18 schools wrote proposals for grants from the Model Classroom Grant program. According to the school district, in 2016 North Dover Elementary School and East Dover Elementary School were recipients of this same grant.