Our Schools
Community Grants
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Fall Newsletter this year is dedicated to the different grant and pilot program opportunities provided by our community. The articles below show how a wonderful variety of New Providence Educational Foundation, PTSA, PTA, and PTO grants along with the Music Boosters and external grant programs are used to enhance the educational program here in New Providence. A big thank you to everyone involved in this effort.
From eight grants worth approximately $20,000 in 2004 to twenty-nine grants worth over $75,000 in 2019, the NPEF funding has been an invaluable resource in the drive towards innovative teaching and the district's efforts to create the best educational environment for all students.
For example, the image below shows a number of the coding tools purchased through NPEF grants and used to enhance the progression of K-12 computation thinking and coding skills, and the 3 videos under the image show how some of these tools are presently being used in the STEM classrooms.
Third Grade Students Coding The Root Robots
Middle School Robotics Mod using the VEX Robots
High School Students Code Self Driving Cars
Thank you to all the NPEF members over the years for their wonderful fundraising efforts.
AWR PTA
The AWR PTA provides mini-grants of up to $500 for teachers who are looking to innovate or provide additional services in their classrooms. Over the last two years, they have awarded over 40 of these mini-grants to help the educational process.
The sections below highlight three particular mini-grants.
Survivors Speak Holocaust Program
The Survivors Speak program is used in collaboration with the 5th grade Language Arts Tolerance Unit. The program allows students to interact with two Holocaust eyewitnesses (survivors, liberators, POWs), and a moderator, to discuss the Holocaust through a presentation and 'Q and A' session. This provides students with the opportunity to experience history through a primary source and helps students develop an authentic connection to their learning.
Differentiated Furniture
AWR Music Room Mural Grant
Flexible Seating and Sensory Supports
The objective behind the grant is to create a friendly learning environment that addresses the sensory support needs of all students and, by including these for all students, decreasing the social stigma of one child needing something different than another.
By creating a more sensory-friendly classroom, elementary classrooms are transforming our current settings into one of greater inclusion, acceptance, and differentiation for all.
Courtyard Renovation
Phase Two will include the addition of a gazebo, stadium seating and landscaping. We hope it will one day be a showpiece that all students and staff can enjoy and be proud of!
Interior Courtyard and Senior Legacy Garden Project
The NPHS PTSA has recently provided funds for two courtyard projects.
A. Interior Courtyard Renovation
The first phase of the interior courtyard renovation was completed this summer and included resurfacing the existing patio, adding two new patios areas, creating handicap accessibility, updating the landscaping and installing a pergola donated by the Fraehmke family. The photo above shows seniors using equipment purchased from a NPEF grant to measure the effect of UVA and UVB rays in their unit on Skin Cancer.
B. Senior Legacy Garden Project
The Senior Legacy Garden Project is an ongoing, multiyear event involving the Senior AP Japanese Language Class and Woodworking Club.
The grant provides for the upkeep of a Japanese-style garden in the high school's East Courtyard and the opportunity for each graduating class to create a torii gate painted with “NPHS” and their graduating class year in Japanese. Each class's gate is displayed alongside the outside classroom fashioned in the format of a zen, or dry landscaping, garden.
Music Boosters
- Artist in Residence; Internships
- Special Performance Funding
- Scholarships
- Supplemental Classroom Materials and
- Other Musical Educational Opportunities (like performing opportunities and competitions)
Art Mini-Grants
The Scholastic Art competition is a national competition and in the last five years New Providence has earned numerous gold and silver keys at the regional level and three national winners.
The Memory Project pairs art students with orphans from other countries; the artists receive a photo of each child, paint a portrait based on the photo, and send the portrait to the child. In the past few years, the district's artists have collaborated with children from Myanmar, the Philippines, and Colombia.
Athletic Booster Club
The Athletic Booster Club (ABC) supports the athletic programs student-athletes and the promotion of athletic events through all the grades. All funds go directly back to the athletic programs, including sponsoring the Fall, Winter, and Spring Award Nights, scholarships, the Senior banquet, and the coaches' wish list program.
- Signage around the new Lieder Field
- Safety equipment and training materials for the Athletic Trainer’s office
- Additional equipment for many teams
In addition, the ABS recently founded the Student Booster Club, a service organization, to advance the traditions and spirit of NPHS Athletics and provide our current students with an avenue for learning leadership, business, and team-building skills.
And lastly....a National Pilot Program
The K-6 STEM teachers are part of a grant initiative from the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program. Third-grade STEM class at Salt Brook had the opportunity to participate in a Computer Science pilot for the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program.
New Providence School District
Email: webmaster@npsdnj.org
Website: https://www.npsd.k12.nj.us/
Location: 356 Elkwood Avenue, New Providence, NJ, USA
Phone: 9084649050