Front Royal, VA – The Warren County Educational Endowment awarded ten grants in November 2011 totaling $33,250 to the Warren County Public School System.

Grants were awarded for the following projects:

Project Lead the Way Biomedical Sciences Program ‐10,000 – Startup funding for the Biomedical Sciences Program. Students will explore the concepts of human medicine and are introduced to bioinformatics, including mapping and analyzing DNA. The program includes four courses including Principles of Biomedical Sciences, Human Body Systems, Medical Interventions and Biomedical Innovation. The grant will help cover the initial year startup cost of approximately $35,000.

iPads for Special Education Students – A. S. Rhodes ‐ $2,500 – The grant will help provide iPads to provide students with disabilities a very advanced and interactive way to gain the basic skills that they need in order to be successful in the classroom. The iPad is the most innovative way to provide students with the exact practice and instruction they need.

Integrating Technology in English 7 – Warren County Middle School ‐ $3,000 – The goal of the project would be to supplement  traditional teaching practices such as textbooks, read‐alouds by the teacher, a tape deck to create recordings for writing and projects, and physical flash cards for instruction and review, with  technology‐based instruction and activities with the use of an I‐Pod Touch. There are multiple applications available to help integrate technology into the classroom.

Integrating Technology into the Life Science ‐ Warren County Middle School ‐ $3,000 – The grant will help to purchase iPads for the Life Science classroom at Warren County Middle School. The applications available on the iPad will provide students with additional opportunities to learn and review Life Science concepts with technology.

Youth Enrichment Program – Warren County Middle School ‐ $1,290 – The Youth Enrichment Program provides before and after‐school care and enrichment for middle school students. The project would provide tutoring to students who require additional math assistance.

Graphic Arts Lab Upgrade – Warren County High School ‐ $760 – The grant would fund memory upgrades for the computers in the graphics arts lab to allow them to run new and updated software.

Foreign Language Learning Lab – Skyline High School ‐ $2,500 – The grant would fund mini laptop computers for the French classes at Skyline High School. The laptops will allow the correspondence between the students and teachers of Skyline and its partner school in Vauban, France. As the partnership develops, students and teachers at both schools will become engaged in collaborative learning projects and communicating with each other via Skype, email and other social networking sites.

Math Tools – Skyline High School ‐ $1,700 – The grant will provide software that will allow math symbols and operations to be used with the smartboard systems. The software will increase student participation and motivation through increased interactive learning opportunities.

Kindles in the Classroom – Skyline High School ‐ $3,500 – This is a pilot program to document the practicality, efficacy and cost‐effectiveness of using Kindle e‐readers in the English classroom. Each Kindle can store 1,500 books and will allow all novels, short stories and eventually textbooks that a student would need at school and at home.

Improved Learning with “Ladibugs” – Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School ‐ $5,000 – The grant will provide 10 “Ladibug” document cameras and 3 wireless docking stations for use at the school to allow teachers and students to share materials, projects and visual directions in a large and well lit format. The cameras can also be used to video lessons and presentations to be shared later with the class, other classes and teachers at HJB and other County schools.

The Endowment is a catalyst in improving the education and learning environment in Warren County Public Schools. Sometimes it takes private support of public efforts to incubate an idea or a new approach that: helps students compete in a global marketplace,  instills passion for life‐long learning, and sparks a vision to stretch for success. Programs funded by the Endowment are sponsored by our school system and are consistent with its mission and direction. They are intended to initiate sustained improvement in the fundamental capability of the school system and enhance the attractiveness of the community through the promotion of educational excellence.

WCEE President Doug Stanley stated that, “At this time of deep cuts to education budgets, The Warren County Educational Endowment feels a compelling commitment to our mission of helping the local school system support high level and creative programs for our children. The Warren County Public School System has had to make some difficult decisions in dealing with budget issues and needs our support more than ever. With these ten grant awards we feel that we have been able to give a spark to creative thinking and continue to encourage the spread of the use of technology as a tool for advanced learning.”

According to School Superintendent Pam McInnis, “Warren County Public Schools is extremely fortunate to have a partnership with the Warren County Educational Endowment. The Endowment has provided a number of grants to teachers and schools that will enabled us to stay on the edge of technology in the classroom and to provide creative projects to enhance student achievement. Financial support from the Endowment continues to play an integral part in our trek to excellence.”