Crane School District awarded over $1M in donations

Crane School District received a large chunk of money in order to help their students, thanks to multiple donors.

One of the many factors a school requires to succeed is to have funds to meet student needs.

On January 8, 2019 Crane School District Governing Board accepted a staggering $1,015,539.23 in gifts and donations.

To date, the district has accepted $1,109,531.93 in donations across Yuma County.

“I would like to point out to you, that the grand total is over one million dollars, which is pretty spectacular,” Brenna Paulin, Board President said.

The donations come from Apple, Dr. Judy Bishop, Donors Choose, and Fort Yuma Rotary.

“Each donor plays a valuable role in shaping lives of every student here at Crane School District – providing exciting experiences for our students is something we cannot take for granted,” Paulin added.

“What we’re most excited about with these donations is that there’s a community of people outside of our district that are willing to support us and believe in public education,” Jamie Haines, Gowan Science Academy’s Principal, said.

Some of those donations include Apple Beat headphones, high-quality equipment to help during class.

“Our students often times access curriculum created by the teacher that’s in terms of video and having high-quality headphones is going to be a game changer,” Haines added.

News 11 was there when Principal Haines revealed the headphones to a class of third-grade students.

“Every single dear is getting their own Beats. Isn’t that exciting?” Haines asked the classroom.

“I thought that it was really cool, and it was really surprising,” Melanie Moore, a third-grader, said.

“I think it’s really nice that they can provide us with headphones and they can suit us with without us just getting them, they just provide them for us,” third-grader Eleanor Hauck added.

A kindergarten playground was also included in the million dollar donations.

H.L. Suverkrup Elementary and Gowan Science Academy share a campus and are the only school in the Crane District without a playground for kindergartners.

“This is amazing, we’re so fortunate to have (Fort) Yuma Rotary sponsor a new playground for us,” Carlye Ortiz, Kindergarten teacher at GSA, said.

Over Winter Break, parent volunteers and Fort Yuma Rotary gathered to help build the playground, now ready for the kids to use.

“They put so many hours and nobody asked them to do that. They did that because they believe it’s important to invest on our communities and that we have no more valuable resource than our children,” Ortiz said.

Here’s a breakdown of where the donations will be dispersed.

School Donor Item Donated Approx. Value Purpose Gary A. Knox Donors choose Project: “Making Math Reachable” $420.95 Mrs. Grable’s Classroom Rancho Viejo Donors choose Project: “Listening. Speaking. Creating Oh My!” $141.07 Mrs. Navarro’s Classroom Crane Schools Apple Beats Headphones $988,269.75 For all district students H.L. Suverkrup & GSA Fort Yuma Rotary Kindergarten Playground $26,307.46 Kindergarten students Crane Schools Judy Bishop Cash Donation $400.00 Greatest Need District Wide

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