More than $33,000 in grants for school year awarded

The Cranford Fund for Educational Excellence is a non-profit, communitybased philanthropic foundation, whose mission is to foster academic excellence, promote innovation and enhance the vitality of the Cranford Public Schools by generating additional resources through community involvement. Grants are awarded to educators who will use the funding to advance this mission.

The CFEE has announced they have awarded more than $33,000 in grants to the Cranford Public Schools for the 202324 academic year, which the Cranford Board of Education formally accepted in August.

Fourteen projects received funding this year across the categories of Makerspaces/Innovation Zones, Innovations in Classroom Design, Differentiation/Personalization, Technology Integration and Innovations to Support School District Goals.

Yvette Andriola and Anne Marie Miller of Hillside Avenue School, who were awarded a grant for a reading intervention program, said, “The reading initiative grant will not only promote differentiation within our learning environment but also create valuable intervention and enrichment opportunities for our students in the areas of reading/listening comprehension, memory, vocabulary, abstract thinking and writing skills. We are confident that we can make a profound and lasting difference in the lives of our students, nurturing their abilities and fostering a love for learning that will accompany them on their educational journey.”

Grant funding for the 2023-2024 year was generated from the sixth annual CFEE Trivia Night fundraiser, which was in February at the Kenilworth VFW and philanthropic donations throughout the year. Thanks were given to everyone in the community who attended, with 39 teams vying for the championship, as well as DJ Randy Geis, emcee Danny Murphy, photographer Christopher Gosier, guest presenter Bernie Wagenblast and trivia master Brian Andrews.

CFEE thanked Cranford’s superintendent of Schools, Dr. Scott Rubin, for stopping by and top contributors MWT Builders, Cranford Jaycees, Brighton Air Corporation and Lincoln Investment for their generous sponsorship of the event. Other local businesses, Cranford families and community organizations also supported the event with sponsorships ranging from $150 to $5000.

Rubin said of the CFEE: “Thank you for all you do in support of the Cranford Public School District. I am truly heartened by your generosity, and that of the community, and excited about the positive impact the CFEE efforts will have on the District.”

Grant spotlights

• Manufacturing in Engineering: Using a Laser Cutter for Production, multischool: Goals of this project are to encourage student investigation of career possibilities in the areas of STEAM including computer aided design, manufacturing, and fabrication technologies. Providing students with opportunities to develop their technology skills through the use of programs and applications on computers and tablets.

• The Visualizing and Verbalizing program at Hillside Avenue School, which develops concept imagery as a basis for comprehension and higher-order thinking. This initiative promotes differentiation within the learning environment but also creates valuable intervention and enrichment opportunities for our students in the areas of reading/listening comprehension, memory, vocabulary, abstract thinking and writing skills.

• Innovated Interventions, districtwide: This multi-sensory approach to reading is geared toward helping students overcome literacy struggles. By using multi-sensory tools to teach phonics sequentially, students are able to learn cognitively and become more confident in their reading, writing, and language skills.

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