The Alexandria City School Board unanimously accepted $240,100 in donations to the city’s school system on Thursday night (Aug. 27).
Along with school supplies and donations for meal debt, the gifts include a $158,000 donation to buy phone pouches with magnetic locks for every student at Alexandria City High School. With more than 4,500 students getting accustomed to a new bell-to-bell phone ban, Principal Michael Burch told ALXnow that the donation will buy enough pouches to last the school for several years.
The pouches can be unlocked at the end of the school day at unlocking stations near the school exit, Burch said.
A spokesperson for the school system said that the school system just received the donation and couldn’t provide a timeline on when the pouches will go into use.
The School Board accepted the donations without discussion.
The donations are listed below.
- 200 backpacks each with a binder, notebooks, loose leaf paper, dividers, headphones, pencil packs, rulers, glue sticks, highlighters and sticky notes from Sagewater valued at $5,000
- School supplies from the Jen Walker Team valued at $6,000
- 800 backpacks and school supplies from the Bill Page Toyota and Kids In Need Foundation valued at $10,000
- A donation of $20,000 from Patrick and Kim Anderson toward the school division’s meal debt
- A donation of $41,100 from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church toward the school division’s meal debt
- A donation of $158,000 from an anonymous donor for magnetic phone pouches at Alexandria City High School
