National PTA has awarded Paul Duke STEM High School PTSA with a $2,500 grant to continue their efforts to meet critical needs of students, families and teachers in their school community due to COVID-19. The funding is made possible by PTA Proud National Sponsor Mathnasium. The funding is in addition to the $5,000 grant National PTA awarded to Paul Duke STEM PTSA in 2020 to empower their COVID-19 relief efforts.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and National PTA and PTAs nationwide remain committed to making sure students, families, teachers and schools have what they need during this challenging time,” said Leslie Boggs, president of National PTA. “Paul Duke STEM PTSA has been working hard every day to provide essential resources, tools and information to support families and educators amid the pandemic. With the grant, Paul Duke STEM PTSA will be able to continue to provide critical support to their school community.”
“This year presented many disruptions for students and teachers” Principal Jonathon Wetherington explained. “Some of our students are learning from home, and some at school. Our traditional lessons where students work closely in lab spaces on shared equipment could not work during the COVID outbreak. We are grateful to National PTA and Mathnasium for their support to help us engage our students in new and innovative ways and keep our school community connected”.
The grants enabled our Engineering Department to expand the Maker Space and mentor students through several unique hands-on educational experiences. The science department created and distributed over 600 at-home science experiment kits. Our care team was able to provide assistance to students whose families were experiencing extreme financial hardships. The continuation funds will allow us to host Saturday intervention session for students, support our teachers to share innovations in distance learning techniques, and add to our outdoor classroom.
Paul Duke STEM PTSA’s grants are part of over $1.5M in funding that National PTA has provided to PTAs across the country for COVID-19 relief efforts.
“With the grant funding, PTAs will be able to continue their important and impactful work,” added Nathan R. Monell, CAE, National PTA executive director. “We are grateful to our sponsors, including Mathnasium, for enabling us to provide resources to PTAs to help them care for their school communities.”
In addition to these COVID-19 relief grants, Mathnasium also supports PTAs nationwide with programming intended to increase families’ enthusiasm and confidence in math. Mathnasium is a founding sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. Mathnasium of Berkeley Lake is a long-time partner and supporter of schools in the Paul Duke STEM cluster.
Source: Paul Duke Stem HS Press Release
