by Aozora Ito, Staff Writer
Just recently, the Huntington Beach Union School District (HBUHSD) gave Fountain Valley High School a one-time sum of money primarily for use on student resources.
“The school board had one main goal and that was that it was used for classroom resources. So we’re not asking departments to pay for facility type things,” said Principal Dr. Morgan Smith.
The one-time sum of money will allow for departments to replenish their stock pile or give teachers the chance to start something new for the students.
“If [teachers] want to do something new and interesting, it gives them an opportunity to be creative and come up with something great that will ultimately give students a wider opportunity for something common educational in the classroom,” said Smith.
According to Lehua Werdel, the science department coordinator and science teacher, the science department got just over $18,000. They are purchasing science equipments ranging from hot plates to electronic balances and probeware that are going to be used for chemistry and environmental science classes, and some biotechnology equipment that will be used in the biology classes.
“Some of our hot plates are probably 20 to 30 years old and this is allowing us to purchase some new equipment,” said Werdel.
The history department got $13,000 which will be used all on 40 chromebooks for students to use as a resource.
“We are implementing a lot of technology into our lessons, so it is definitely useful for our students,” said History Department Coordinator and history teacher Julie Chaicharee.
According to Smith, over the years, teachers and schools often ask for as many resources and support as possible from the district. When school districts come into state and federal money, they are able to fund certain things. The HBUHSD divided up the number of students each school has and with a certain dollar amount per student, distributed the funds to the school. It came to be about $106,000.
Every year, our school receives a certain amount of money per student and divides it up by the number of sections. Based on the number of sections, they take the amount and divide that up into every department for the annual department distribution. For this one-time money, they used the same distribution process.
For example, students take an English class all four years, so there is a lot more English classes on campus. Because they have more sections, they received the most fund while the smaller sections such as electives received a different amount.
“At the beginning of the year, the departments got their annual distribution and then more recently, they were able to get the one-time money from the district as well,” said Smith.
To purchase items that will be received and paid for out of this fiscal school year which starts on July 1 and goes for the whole year, school districts have April 15 as the universal deadline to submit orders. For our school, the departments were given the goal of putting together purchase orders and submitting them for approval through the front office by the end of March.
By doing so, they’ll be able to get everything they need in time for the fall school year.” Smith said, “You want them to come in in July or August, not October.”
The teachers are excited about the one-time grant received from the district.
“Everybody is always very grateful for extra money and these are pieces of equipment that we haven’t been able to add or there’s some pieces of equipment we haven’t been able to replace in the past 20 years because our normal budget doesn’t allow for it,” said Werdel. “It’s pretty exciting,.”
