Millstone schools receive over $46,000 in funding
Millstone Foundation for Educational Excellence members give out checks
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

SCOTT PILLING staff Beth Topinka, a sixth-grade teacher at Millstone Township Middle School, shows off a Millstone Township Foundation for Educational Excellence grant on May 20. She will use the funding to study insects in amber with her students.

MILLSTONE — Some members of the township school faculty got quite a surprise on Friday.

The Millstone Foundation for Educational Excellence (MTFEE) awarded over $46,825 in grants to various school teachers and faculty on May 20. For the first time ever, MTFEE members surprised teachers in their classrooms to award them the funding.

SCOTT PILLING staff The Millstone Foundation for Educational Excellence surprised Michelle Aquino, Laura Berube, Rhonda Morris, Allison Pressey and Beth Topinka in the hallway of the Millstone middle School with a grant for $27,646 for a MathMobile.

“We’re calling ourselves the Grant Patrol and from now on we’re going to surprise teachers in their classrooms with the checks,” MTFEE member Judy Faber said.

Faber and MTFEE members Holly Deitz, Paula Kinsey, Mary Anderson, Laura Wittman and Christine Alres comprised the grant patrol that awarded 13 grants to various faculty in the Millstone Township Elementary and Middle Schools.

SCOTT PILLING staff Members of the Millstone Township Foundation for Educational Excellence (MTFEE) awarded over $46,000 in grant funding to Millstone Township faculty on May 20. Above, some of the MTFEE members celebrate with staff from the math department.

Deitz said the funding helps township schools create and run educational programs the school budget does not allot funding for.

“It’s important for us to do this because it helps raise the bar for education in Millstone,” Deitz said.

The Grant Patrol awarded the first, and largest, grant of $27,646 to Michelle Aquino, Laura Berube, Rhonda Morris, Allison Pressey and Beth Topinka, the middle school’s math department, for their project called MathMobile.

The MathMobile is a wireless, mobile computer lab that will bring state-of-the-art technology and mathematics learning opportunities to every middle school student, according to the MTFEE.

After receiving the grant, Topinka said, “I’m thrilled. This is really exciting.”

Topinka was not only instrumental in helping create the MathMobile concept, but also she won an MTFEE grant of $1,851 for an insects-in-amber study program.

“Students will look at insects in amber and compare them to insects that are alive today,” Topinka said.

Topinka said she has been the recipient of two other MTFEE grants.

“The MTFEE really enriches students’ education,” Topinka said. “The kids really get excited about these kinds of programs, and we’re lucky to have an organization that realizes how important extracurricular programs are.”

Marianne Disick, the elementary school nurse, said she will use the $589

Marianne Disick, the elementary school nurse, said she will use the $589

grant she received to help the district nurses attend the National School Nurse Conference on diabetes.

“I’m very excited,” Disick said. “I didn’t know that I was getting the grant. It will help children with diabetes because our nurses will be able to offer education to students that will help them live a healthier life.”

In the guidance department, Kathryn Coffey applied for an $809 grant that she received. She will create a Suicide Prevention Program that will be taught to seventh- and eighth- graders by Health Teachers Heather Savard and Deborah Acker.

The elementary school’s Speech and Language Therapist Marjorie Morgenroth said she’s happy to now have the ability to implement a music-based auditory stimulation program that will help teach students who have a hard time memorizing information taught in the classroom.

“I hope this will help benefit students who already come to me because they have problems with memorization,” Morgenroth said. “The $775 will buy 16 compact discs that will incorporate music into their learning programs.”

Jennifer McPartland, Nicole Ascione, Jason Miller and Hope Miller, teachers of grades K-4, received $5,232 to attend a development workshop in California.

“I’m very excited; this is the fourth grant I’ve received from the MTFEE,” McPartland said. “We will use the funds for a program called the Brain Friendly Classroom.”

The four-day seminar will illustrate to teachers how to incorporate such modalities as music, poetry, dance, athletics, art, and writing into daily lesson plans, McPartland said.

MTFEE raised the money through its two annual fund-raisers, The Cupids Ball and an annual golf outing.

“We raised about $80,000 this year,” Kinsey said. “This was our eighth cycle of fund-raising.”

After the fund-raising is completed, MTFEE accepts applications for grant funding.

“Teachers and other faculty have to fill out a questionnaire and explain how the grant will benefit children,” Kinsey said. “Then, the MTFEE trustees review each application and pitch what they consider to be the best ideas to the rest of the group.”

“As always,” Faber said, “we would like to see these programs running once they’re implemented.”