Pioneer Elementary receives donations from PTSA

ARLINGTON — The Arlington School Board recently approved more than $13,000 in donations to Pioneer Elementary School.

The donations, which came from the Pioneer PTSA, will primarily help pay for technology upgrades, books, reading programs and art education, said Pioneer principal Karl Olson.

School Board members approved five separate donations during their Jan. 25 meeting.

The largest donation — $5,800 — was for the school to purchase eight Apple Macbooks and two Epson projectors.

Combined with the laptops already being used by staff, the new Macbooks will give each certificated staff member access to a laptop, Olson said.

The projectors will primarily be used by the school’s Art Docent program, which students in all classrooms attend twice per month.

That program also received $3,000 from the PTSA to pay for the art instruction class. Funds will be combined with basic education funding in order to pay for the visual arts classes through the end of the 2009-10 school year, Olson said.

The PTSA also donated $2,100 for individual teachers’ classrooms to help offset costs of classroom supplies and field trips, he said.

Additionally, the PTSA donated $1,359 to for Pioneer’s library to purchase books and fill holes in its catalogue. The donation came from the school’s Scholastic Book Fair, which took place in October 2009.

Finally, the PTSA donated $1,000 to support the subscription cost of Accelerated Reader Enterprise — a Web-based reading incentive program at Pioneer.

Donation funds will provide approximately half of the program’s total yearly costs.