By KATHARINA CAVANO
“Tonight is a great night” said Superintendent Joseph Majka at Bradley Beach’s Board of Education meeting this week. “We’re celebrating the tremendous work that went into the PTO Fundraiser…and we’re celebrating perfection.”
The annual PTO fun-raiser dinner and gift auction was held at The Columns in Avon on Oct. 10. Gift baskets were donated by local area merchants from Bradley Beach, Asbury Park, and Ocean Grove, among others. By the end of the night, the PTO had raised over $14,000.
The funds will go towards Bradley Beach Elementary’s technology program, Majka said and the purchase of three new SmartBoards – to fill almost all of the classrooms in the school – and about 60 Google ChromeBooks for the students to use.
Originally the plan was to buy 3D printers as well with the funds but instead a grant will be used to purchase the printers. Majka thanked the PTO and everyone who worked on the fund-raiser. He said the technology will “help prepare themselves [students] for their lives ahead, so thank you.”
The Board of Education also honored several students from the sixth and seventh grade who earned perfect scores on the math portion of the NJASK exams in May of 2014. Four of the students were there to receive their certificates. They were Lleyke Duncan, Kira Duncan, Alana Gerdes, and Rachel Warnet. The three students unable to be there were Cole Barelinas, Bridget Letson, and Analise Juliano, who graduated in the spring of 2014 from the elementary school and are now at their respective high schools
“I give a lot of credit to the math instruction in the school” said Board President Suan Monroe. Rachel Warnet, now in the seventh grade agreed and said it was due to her math teacher the year before that she did so well. When asked what she wanted to be when she grows up, Rachel quickly responded “an engineer.”