Queen Creek Elementary receives $24K Meta grant

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, recently donated $24,000 to support a technology program at Queen Creek Elementary.

The donation was approved during the Queen Creek Unified School District governing board meeting on April 9.

Called “1:1 Technology for All Students,” the project is designed to provide all students with access to technology. Queen Creek Elementary teacher Stephanie French applied for the grant to be used for computers for the school.

“With her hard work and dedication to QC Elementary, she will be making a huge impact on each and every student,” stated QCUSD governing board member Patty Campbell in an email to the Queen Creek Independent.

Campbell pointed out this is not the first donation Meta has made to the district.

“As a relatively new company to our area, Meta has already demonstrated a strong commitment to giving back to the community. Over the last three years, QCUSD has been fortunate to receive grants from Meta to support our district’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics),” Campbell stated. “These grants have played a role in enhancing educational opportunities for our students and promoting innovation in the classroom. QCUSD takes pride in our community partnerships, and Meta’s support has been instrumental in supporting our students for success in an upcoming increasingly technology-driven world."

The “1:1 Technology for All Students” project mission is:

• To allow students to access technology tools that assist in closing achievement gaps.
• To further develop student learning beyond traditional classroom learning formats.
• To create an innovative collaborative learning environment among all students.

This is a one-time donation from Meta, which is building a large complex in Mesa.

In her grant proposal, French wrote that “we are familiar with the challenges that students may face in everyday life, and technology is sometimes unattainable to these students. At Queen Creek Elementary, we are dreaming of a moment where all of our students have access to computers in their classrooms, so our wonderful teachers can help students open the door to an innovative learning environment that may positively change the course of their future and level the playing field.”

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org.