District 41 receives $10,000 grant

Lake Villa Elementary District 41 has received a $10,000 donation from the Adolph and Eleanor Glabowicz Foundation to be used for technology.

Heather Johnson, a teacher at Thompson Elementary School, presented the check to the district during Monday night’s school board meeting.

The money will mainly be used to put SMART Board (interactive white boards) and ELMOS (overhead projector systems) in every classroom. SMART Boards will be phased in during a two-year period.

The donation came about through the Adolph and Eleanor Glabowicz Foundation established in honor of Johnson’s grandparents.

“Typically the foundation will donate to charities or organizations or schools that are in need. So we try and really focus on those particular means of donating, so that it’s not going toward something that we don’t feel strongly about,” she said.

The foundation was set up when both of Johnson’s grandparents died. This is the first time it has donated money to District 41.

“I think this is important because we are a very technology driven society and it seems we are connected in so many different ways through technology,” Johnson said.

District 41 Superintendent John Van Pelt said he hopes the donation will give the schools an opportunity to teach through different avenues that are not currently available to the students.

“We are at the beginning stages of this so we think we know what the potential benefit will be for students, and it seems that it will be pretty self-evident, but until we actually implement this and involve the classroom level daily with the use of technology, time will tell what the true impact will be,” Van Pelt said.