School Notes School Notes (June 18, 2003)

Arts school gets big grant

The Community School of Music and Arts, a nonprofit center for arts education in Mountain View, recently received grants totaling $975,000 from the Menlo Park-based William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

A $750,000 grant bolsters the school's capital campaign to build a permanent facility off San Antonio Road in Mountain View. The facility, scheduled to open in January 2004, will include 17 music studios, classrooms, a ceramic studio and a 200-seat concert hall.

A three-year operating grant of $225,000 made up the remainder of the gift from the foundation.

The Community School is still $2.5 million shy of completing its $11.5 million capital campaign by the end of year, said Angela McConnell, its executive director.

"We hope that our gift will serve as a catalyst to community members to support the building of what will be an unparalleled educational and cultural facility serving the Peninsula," said Moy Eng, the Hewlett Foundation's program director for performing arts.

Reading grant for Ravenswood

This summer will be a reading summer for about 300 children in the Ravenswood City School District, thanks to a $264,000 grant won by the district earlier this year, said Yvonne Casias-Young, principal of Belle Haven Elementary School.

The grant was awarded by the Walnut Creek-based Reading Revolution program, a video-based approach that provides supplementary reading and spelling instruction. The children, in grades 2 through 7, will take part in the intensive Reading Revolution program for six weeks at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in East Palo Alto.

M-A senior's essay wins first-place prize

Britney Heredia, a senior at Menlo-Atherton High School, was awarded a first-place prize of $500 by the Humane Education Network of Menlo Park for her essay describing the abuse and exploitation of animals in circuses.

The annual high school essay contest draws attention to factual cases of animal abuse in the United States. In 1,000 words or less, students are asked to explain the mistreatment and recommend measures for ending it and promoting humane treatment.

For more information, call 854-8921.