RBR Buc Backer President Paul Noglows presents Red Bank Regional Supervisor Peter Grandinetti with a very large check (symbolically and figuratively) for a special console to better operate the lights used during theatre performances and other school programs.
Press release from Red Bank Regional High School
The Red Bank Regional (RBR) Buc Backer Foundation is composed of an active group of passionate parents who raise money and perform functions to support all aspects of student life at Red Bank Regional High School. The fruits of their fund-raising efforts were recently exemplified by the granting of over $75,000 in eight teacher or administrator requested grants to the school district.
“Throughout the year, we raise funds to benefit all aspects of student life in supporting academic success, as well as athletic, artistic and extracurricular development,” explains RBR Buc Backer president Paul Noglows. “Many of these items just couldn’t be met within the constraints of RBR’s fiscally tight, tax-payer supported budget. So for instance, while the Board of Education did finance the construction of a new fitness room through their capital budget, we helped furnish that space with a $50,000 grant for sports equipment.”
All teacher-requested grants were approved by the Buc Backer Grant Committee, which established the grant criteria. In addition to the aforementioned physical education grant (which was requested by RBR’s Athletic Director Del Dal Pra) other grants included: chrome books for a technology enhanced algebra program ($4,000; math teacher Sunny Lenhard;), sponsorship of a workshop for teaching guitar ($1,200; Visual & Performing Arts Academy (VPA) music teacher Jeffrey Boga); sponsorship of a teacher’s international paper presentation on trauma (in literature) at the University of Amsterdam ($3,700; English teacher Andrew Forrest); material and equipment for creating a school-wide mindfulness program ($1,000; English teacher Justin Biggs); funding the commission of an original music composition for the student orchestra ($3,000; VPA music teacher Kevin Pryor); the purchase of a “Media Center Makespace” for student-created original projects utilizing 3-D printers and other materials ($4,200; Media Center Specialist Kathy Smith); and a state-of-the-art ETC Lighting console and ancillary equipment to greatly enhance and facilitate the lighting for shows and presentations in the theatre ($9,900; RBR Supervisor Pete Grandinetti, four-year academies).