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Schools

Two Schools Compete for Clorox Grant

'Power A Bright Future' will help five winning schools across the country improve their campuses.

Out of more than 1,500 schools across the nation, the San Mateo-Foster City School District is home to not one but two schools nominated for the annual Clorox grant competition.

Highlands Elementary School and San Mateo Park Math and Science Magnet School are both entered in the competition, but in different categories, so there is a possibility both schools could win. For the past three years, the Clorox Company has used the Power A Bright Future program to award schools across the country thousands of dollars in grants to make improvements of their choice. The company will award four $25,000 grants and one grand prize of $50,000. The categories include play, create, explore and judge’s choice.

Each of these two local schools were lucky enough to have staff and parents write the nominations that got the schools accepted into the competition.

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Highlands entered the “create” category with the goal of using the money to build a new theater area. As of Thursday morning, the school has 1,021 votes; community members can text clorox9090 to 44144 to vote.

“The visual and performing arts are a critical part of our educational offerings at Highlands School,” said Maria Majka, school principal. “Our hope is to renovate our Large Group Instruction area so that we can accommodate more children and better utilize it for performances and assemblies.”

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San Mateo Park Math & Science Magnet School entered the category of “explore” with the intention of using the winning money to upgrade the school’s technology. As of Thursday morning, the school has 1,209 votes; community members can text clorox8968 to 44144 to vote.

“If awarded, this grant will help Park meet the challenges of the achievement gap head-on with an updated technology lab that ignites learning in all students with new computers, printers, and tablets,” Principal Bob Abaya said in an email to parents. “Our English language learners will thrive in a technology lab where visual, interactive, hands-on learning takes place free of language limitations. In addition, students working at grade level, as well as accelerated learners, will benefit.”

Abaya told Patch that there are ample ways for parents and community members, and even students over 13 years old, to vote for their school. Voting can be done on the Clorox’s Power A Bright Future website, on Facebook, or by texting in a vote.

“We even took the opportunity at our Halloween parade to have all the parents take out their cell phones and text a vote,” Abaya said.

The school with the most votes so far is in San Marcos, Calif. with more than 18,000 votes for its hoped-for tech rewiring of Discovery Elementary. Nominations were accepted through the middle of October. Voting happens now through December 9. Winners will be announced in January.

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