Mt. Vernon Register-News

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July 29, 2010

Bethel Grade School enters Kohl’s contest

Top 20 schools that meet contest requirements will each receive $500,000

By KANDACE MCCOY kandace.mccoy@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — Kohl’s Department Stores is giving away $10 million, and Bethel Grade School wants a piece of it.

Teachers at the school discovered the department store chain was holding a contest in celebration of its 10th anniversary. To compete for the money, Kohl’s is asking students, teachers, staff and the public to vote for its school and tell how it would benefit from the funding. When final votes are tallied, the top 20 schools in the nation that meet contest criteria will receive $500,000 each.

“I thought it can’t hurt to go ahead and try (to vote),” explained fifth grade teacher Jill Sutton. “We could use it. It’ll ask for ideas for your school and the ways you could use the money if the school won. Teachers have been on there giving ideas, as well as students.”

The way voting works is to visit Kohl’s Cares Facebook page and submit ideas for what schools could do with a half a million dollars, which also gives a person’s Facebook friends a chance to vote in the competition. A winning school must have at least one submission about how the money might be used, and fans can vote up to 20 times for their favorite schools, with a maximum of five votes per individual school, information states.

Bethel special education teacher Misty Shook said if the school were to win, the school would be able to have more resources to aid students in academic learning.

“During these tough economic times, financially for schools, I think faculty and staff at Bethel and schools in the surrounding areas are being more frugal with the resources that have been available to them,” said Superintendent Craig Kujawa. “They’re looking for new streamlines of revenue and anything you can get that doesn’t cost a district anything.”

He acknowledged Kohl’s contest was “fabulous” and would be great for the 20 schools which will be chosen in the end, however admits with a nation wide program like this “chances are not great.”

“But you never know if you may be the lucky district and if that were to happen, that would be fantastic,” Kujawa added.

He said if the school were to be chosen, the district would more than likely use the funding upgrades of technology and for curriculum as well as for professional development for teachers.

“Five hundred thousand for a school our size is a lot of money,” Kujawa said. “Technology is obviously something we try to fund, but yet sometimes gets put on the back burner. But I think even with technology and electrical upgrades, that’s a huge undertaking — there’s other things we really need.”

Kujawa said adding more programs to assist students in test preparation for ISAT, as well an outbuilding for buses “could be a reality” if Bethel was a finalist in the Kohl’s contest.

For more information, or official rules of the Kohl’s Cares contest, visit www.facebook.com/kohls or www.kohls.com /cares.

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