At the Hastings School Board meeting on December 17th, there was a focus on the SPARK grant recipients from the
St. Croix Valley Foundation.
KDWA spoke with a few of the grant recipients for more information on how the SPARK grant will be used in their classrooms.
Rosario Mollo, a 6th-grade STEM teacher at Hastings Middle School, will be receiving ten chomp-saws. He shares with KDWA what these chomp-saws are and how they will be used.
Mollo says that in his classroom students learn problem-solving skills.
Because of the grant, Jill Jensen, a STEM teacher at Kennedy Elementary, received Dash robots. Jensen tells KDWA what these are and how they will benefit the students.
Jill Jensen also received a second grant to be used at Kennedy Elementary. The grant is for native prairie restoration. Jensen explains more (in the sound bite.)
Also at the school board meeting was the Employee of the Semester recognition. School employees were nominated by their peers. Among those recognized are: Pete McGinnis, Korean Geiken, Erin Rankin, Pam Zais, Aleaha Zuzek, and Jackie Morrison.
Korean Geiken spoke with KDWA about what the award means to her.
For the full story, listen to the sound bite.