AEF donates $15,000 to create choral library

A local foundation literally gave the gift of music last month.

ARLINGTON — A local foundation literally gave the gift of music last month.

The Arlington Educational Foundation donated $15,000 to the Arlington School District to purchase sheet music that can be shared between the district’s elementary school choral groups.

“When they buy sheet music, they can’t copy it because they’d have to pay for copyrights,” said Arlington Educational Foundation President Cindy Huleatt. “This gives them enough money to order enough for all five elementary schools to have copies.”

The School Board approved the donation at its Sept. 28 meeting.

The foundation is also in the process of raising money for two other school district donations.

Huleatt said the foundation has raised more than $40,000 of the $72,000 necessary to purchase mobile video and broadcasting equipment for students at Arlington High School.

“We hope to have the rest of that money by the end of the year,” Huleatt said.

The foundation’s third project will be donating funds to purchase and install technology teaching stations for all classrooms at Post Middle School. Each station includes a digital document camera and projector.

In addition to the technology stations, the school’s nine math and science classrooms will be outfitted with interactive touch-screen white boards that students can interact with during class.

“It gives teachers immediate feedback,” Huleatt said. “Students can answer questions from their desks and they can be used in a variety of ways.”

The foundation has pledged to raise $47,000 to fund the teaching stations.

Since 2002, the Arlington Educational Foundation has donated funds to purchase various school items.

Organizers started the foundation in 2002 to raise funds for the construction of the Byrnes Performing Arts Center at Arlington High School, which was completed in 2007.