SwiftCreek Landing Events & Local News
New Bern Sun Journal, 1/8/08
Weyerhaeuser gives $25,000 to schools for math program - Matt Tessnear
Weyerhaeuser representatives presented a check to Craven schools officials today to help pay for a computer math program for elementary pupils.
The $25,300 check is a grant Weyerhaeuser awarded to Craven’s Partners in Education program. Partners members apply for grants to help teachers in the classroom to supplement what the school system provides.
Craven will use the grant money to buy “Accelerated Math” for Bangert and Vanceboro-Farm Life elementary schools.
“This ties up a loose end with our system,” said Larry Moser, associate superintendent. “Every school K through eight now has the program and, when I was a principal, I saw the effects that this program has on improving math scores. So it’s money well spent.”
Craven started using the Accelerated Math program several years ago, Moser said. Pupils use the program as a supplement to textbooks and worksheets.
If children do not understand a concept, the program provides remediation problems to help them understand it and catch up with the rest of the class, said Kay Myers, president of Partners in Education.
“The program has different levels of difficulty, so it can challenge other children who already excel in mathematics, too,” Myers said.
The grant was awarded by the Weyerhaeuser Foundation. The foundation has partnerships with organizations in Craven and Washington counties.
Frank Rackley, a manager at the Weyerhaeuser plant in Vanceboro, and Marie Soutter, the foundation’s North Carolina coordinator, presented the check.
“We knew right out of the gate that this would be a perfect fit for the money,” Soutter said. “We like to choose to give money where there’s manufacturing interests in a county that align with our company and where it will benefit education. The foundation doesn’t just give to anyone.”
The Weyerhaeuser Foundation and Craven schools have had a grant partnership since the late 1980s, said Jennifer Wagner, the executive director of Partners in Education. Craven received $20,000 in 2006 from the foundation. The school system used the money to buy science materials for all of its middle and high schools.