U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. announced that the South Orange-Maplewood school district was awarded a $1,430,106 grant through the Department of Education’s Carol M. White Physical Education Program. The award is the largest in the history of the grant program to a New Jersey school district. 

The Carol M. White Physical Education Program provides funds to local educational agencies and community-based organizations to initiate, expand, or improve physical education programs, including after-school programs, for K-12 students.

The district will use the award for a new physical education program to include an expansion of the Columbia High School Project Adventure high ropes course to include teacher training; an expansion of the Coordinated Approach to School Health (CATCH) program; a state-of-the-art fitness center for both middle schools and CHS; technology and curriculum development; laptops and Pocket PCs for physical education teachers to be used for assessment; physical education teacher attendance at state, regional and national workshops; and the purchase of Dartfish assessment software.