Clorox Power A Bright Future Program

China Spring Elementary

This grant will provide a playground with a track for all student populations.

China Spring, TX

Program Detail:

China Spring Elementary is located in a rural farming community and consists of around 900 students, from pre-K through 3rd grade. The closest playground to our comunity is 20 miles away. There is currently a playground that is outdated and unsafe for the children of our school. The 2011-2012 school year is the first school year in which we have special needs' population to be able to interact with general education students, and as of now, they are unable to. Due to the pea gravel, cement and lack of walking paths, the wheelchair bound students are only able to sit and watch others play. When it is really hot outside, the children are unable to use the equipment due to the playground equipment burning them. Also, due to lack of equipment, students huddle around certain playground areas to play and with that many children in one area, bullying and fighting tend to grow.

How this Grant will Help:

A $50,000 grant would allow all student populations of our school the ability to interact and enjoy peers while playing. A new playground with a walking track would allow the special needs students the opportunity to play and have social interactions with others. A walking track would be a great asset to our physical education department, after school programs, and our community. It would also allow different uses for our classroom teachers. Math teachers could use the walking track to measure distance and science teachers could use the track to observe nature in a safe environment. Awnings that cover the equipment would eliminate children burning themselves in the hot weather. Pea gravel is great for soft falls and landing however it also gets stuck in ears and throats. Eliminating pea gravel with a rubber substance would still cushion falls, and be safe for all of our students. Multiple pieces of playground equipment would allow students to disperse and interact more freely.

Mackay High School

This grant will bring a rural High School into the 21st Century, with 126 mg ram and Chalkboards.

Mackay, ID

Program Detail:

Mackay School District is a small/title 1/rural school nestled in Idaho's Rocky Mountains.Over half the students are on free/reduced lunches & it is HISTORICALLY UNDERFUNDED! The town population is 566, district 200. It is 100 miles to the nearest city.The school was built after the 1983 earthquake claimed the prior building! It hasn't been touched or updated since. The classrooms that are lucky enough to have computers are incredibly outdated-126ram. The classrooms all still have chalkboards. They never had the funding to upgrade to whiteboards.The situation is dire.The district is on a 4 day school week, cut art/music/theater/half their sports.Nothing left to cut. What other districts fear we cut 3-8 yrs ago.Everything beyond basic has to be funded through outside sources.The district has NO MONEY!Please see webpage!- https://sites.google.com/site/mackayelementaryschoolidaho/ to fully understand why Mackay is SO underfunded and forgotten!

How this Grant will Help:

There are 6 basic ways that school districts can acquire funding; state/school bonds/tax revenue/ REAP programs/corporate/foundation grants & federal grants. All 6 leave Mackay extremely underfunded. We have a very difficult time competing for fed grants, too small & poor to pass a school bond $ are extremely under compensated for the loss of developing our forests. We would use the $25,000 to purchase interactive whiteboards for 6 or 7 classrooms. Each System costs around $4000 -includes all accessories & a projector. With an additional $25,000 we would purchase the other 2 interactive whiteboards, 9 teacher laptops & 2 classroom computers per classroom (18 total). This would give every classroom, teacher, and student the tools they need to succeed in the 21st century. Rural education is transforming to a lot of on-line classes to help fill in the electives/AP classes gap. We NEED the technology to succeed! CLOROX help us WIPE out our old technology & bring us into the 21st century!

St. Mark's Lutheran School

This grant will purchase equipment and resources for a weekly student news broadcast.

Hacienda Heights, CA

Program Detail:

This year, St. Mark's Lutheran, a K-8 school, has launched a weekly student news show called the SML Broadcast Podcast that delivers video segments announcing and showcasing events taking place on and around campus. The goal of this broadcast is to provide students with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with different aspects of technology and improve both their written and oral communication skills as they work to report school news, write journalistically, film broadcast segments, and edit footage using computer software. As this dream is becoming a reality with four episodes completed, the SML News Team has expanded from six students to twenty-six. With only one camera and a single green screen, we do not have the equipment necessary to sustain this growth. The podcast has quickly become a beloved feature on campus, yet without more cameras, microphones, and computers, this production cannot reach its full potential.

How this Grant will Help:

This PABF Grant would allow the podcast to develop into the amazing program that we envision it can become. With the right equipment, the news team can cover a variety of events on campus, featuring students at all grade levels. This will foster unity as staff and students alike become interested and invested in classes other than their own. Computers would permit students to expand their technological abilities, while honing their leadership skills as they learn how to create, direct, and produce segments for the show. This hands-on experience will equip them to successfully navigate a variety of endeavors. Greater bandwidth for our server would ensure that the broadcast could be viewed from home, instead of just out in front of the school office. With this grant, we could provide tools needed to cultivate this podcast into a perpetual program. Empowered with a sense of self-efficacy, current and future SML News Team members will strengthen our school community.

Sulphur Springs 3-4 Campus

This grant will provide a playground for the 3-4 Campus, formerly a secondary school.

Sulphur Springs, TX

Program Detail:

For the first time ever 619 3rd and 4th grade students will leave 4 neighborhood schools and be relocated to 1 central campus in January 2012. The facility has served as either a high school or middle school for 52 years. Some modifications are being made to the exterior part of the building for safety purposes; however, a playground does not exist on this campus. Other elementary campuses will need to utilize existing playground equipment allowing little if any structures to be relocated. Even with many hard working families, 64% of the 3rd and 4th graders are on free and reduced lunch with limited access to enrichment experiences. Tragically 47% or 290 of these children are considered overweight or obese and are in dire need of more physical interventions to develop lifelong choices regarding diet and exercise. There is some anxiety among students who will be leaving their "home" campus since they will not have an outlet for outdoor play and independent exercise.

How this Grant will Help:

As students from all over the city come together for the first time, a $50,000 grant from Clorox will provide a means for children to engage socially while being physically active. An age appropriate playground will: 1) Promote healthy growth and physical fitness, 2) Improve academic performance; 3) Enhance brain function, concentration, and focus, while lowering discipline problems; 4) Lower the risk of becoming overweight and help with weight reduction; 5) Decrease chronic health conditions; and 6) Reduce stress levels or symptoms of depression and anxiety of students. Clorox can earnestly "Power a Bright Future" for a campus that is otherwise uncertain how to provide outdoor active learning experiences for students since the school district lost $1,720,570 in state funding for the current school year and has a projected total loss of $3,160,796 for the 2012-2013 school year. This new playground will serve as a catalyst to bring a sense of unity to the school and community.

Discovery

This grant will help re-wire our school for integrated technology programs.

San Marcos, CA

Program Detail:

Our school was built back in 1997. Since that time, technology based learning has evolved by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately for our students, the original wiring does not support the latest teaching and learning methods offered in today's technological world. The goal for our school is to eventually place Smart Boards in every classroom. Before we even begin, however, our school must be re-wired to support this exciting interactive teaching tool.

How this Grant will Help:

If we are able to re-wire our school, we would eventually be able to place mounted projectors and Smart Boards in classrooms. By utilizing the latest technology in the classroom, our students and teachers will be afforded the opportunity for high-tech, interactive learning. We, at Discovery, recognize that computer/technology based learning is the wave of the future. By the simple act of re-wiring our school, we will be able to move forward with our goal of providing all students with relevant opportunities for 21st century learning.