GLENDORA - When school officials and staff in Glendora Unified School District gathered for a luncheon Wednesday, they thought they were celebrating the district’s 45th anniversary.
They were shocked when Carol McAloney, president of Foundation for Glendora Unified Schools, presented them with an oversized check for $45,000.
“We were completely surprised,” said Bob Rendon, principle of Sellers Elementary School, which received $2,677.
“We are going to use that to purchase additional reading books to enhance the implementation of our accelerated reading program,” Rendon said.
School principals, library staff, school board members, Superintendent Catherine Nichols and Foundation board members celebrated the anniversary and donation at the luncheon at the Glendora Country Club.
The money was split among the 10 schools in the district based on their attendance.
“In 2005, when we started to look at school needs, that was one particular year when the state did not support the libraries,” Foundation board member Eric Duyshart said. “As we were 1ooking at the needs of the schools, that really came up as one part of the schools’ function that was underfunded.”
Goddard Middle School, which has 1,000 students, received $5,700. Principal Dominic DiGrazia said the money will go toward buying new books.
DiGrazia also hopes that the money will pay to expand the school’s “Scholastic Reading Counts!” program, which allows students to take computer-generated quizzes after reading a book. DiGrazia hopes to expand the list of quizzes available.
“We are going to be able to do a lot of good for our library with that amount, because library funds over the years have really been cut back from the state to a minimal amount,” DiGrazia said.
The Foundation far Glendora Unified Schools is a nonprofit organization that raises money for schools in Glendora Unified School District.
“It’s a great thing for Glendora to have a dedicated group of individuals that are out there raising funds for all kids, to better the programs,” DiGrazia said.
Heather Jung
Correspondent
News.tribune@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2669
