Lawrence Intermediate School students are leaving their mark on the school – not on the walls or halls, but on the ceiling.
That’s because LIS teachers Morgan Piscitelli, Jessica Dumont and Sara Yoskowitz received a $500 grant from the Lawrence Township Education Foundation for their proposal, dubbed “The Ceiling is Limitless.”
The grant was one of 26 grants awarded by the LTEF in its fall 2024 grant cycle, totaling $46,354.
In this project, LIS students will collaborate to paint the ceiling tiles at the grades 4-6 school with inspirational quotes and pictures that encourage creativity, positivity and joy, LTEF officials said.
LIS also is included in a $2,275 grant that establishes outdoor sensory paths to support social emotional learning strategies for each student. The paths will be installed at LIS and at the Lawrenceville, Ben Franklin, Eldridge Park and Slackwood elementary schools. The Slackwood School will pilot an indoor sensory path.
At the Lawrence Middle School, which teaches students in grades 7-8, a grant for $800 will provide money for the purchase of 10 ukuleles for the eighth-grade general music program, LTEF officials said.
Among the grants approved for Lawrence High School, there is a $399 grant to fund the Positive Physics program. Students will receive thousands of problems, plus step-by-step possible solutions. It will enable them to take the lead in furthering their education on their own.
The LTEF, which is a nonprofit foundation, gets grant requests from teachers in all seven schools in the district, LTEF Executive Director Bonnie Giglio said.
“The teachers look around their classrooms and their school building and think of ways to improve the lives of their students,” Giglio said. “They take the time out of their own personal lives to apply for grants to fund their idea.”
Grant applications go through a detailed evaluation, she said. The volunteer board reads each grant request and evaluates it, and sends on some of those requests to the grant committee to make a funding decision.
“The fall cycle was very competitive,” Giglio said. “There were many wonderful requests. However, it is not possible to fund every grant request.
The LTEF raises funds from individuals, local businesses, corporations and foundations to pay for the grants. It has approved more than 1,140 grants, totaling more than $4.6 million, since its inception in 1992.
