School wins $60,000 in contest

Kaiser Elementary School has been chosen as one of 20 schools nationwide to receive classroom equipment through the Samsung Hope for Education program, as the Costa Mesa campus beat thousands of applicants in an essay contest this fall.

In late August, Assistant Principal Debra Muniz submitted an online application for the philanthropic program, which is run by Samsung in partnership with Microsoft Corp. Two months later, she found that her school that been chosen to receive $60,000 worth of technology, but she remained mum about it until Samsung officially declared the winners on Friday.

With the funds, Muniz has ordered a 57-inch plasma television for the Kaiser science room, a new sound system for the music room and other classroom upgrades. Rather than provide checks to winners, Samsung delivers the products directly to schools after administrators order them off of a list. Muniz expected the school to receive all its equipment within the month.

“The hope to advance is based on sending out kids who are technically literate,” she said. “That is how we’re going to have kids as partners in the global economy.”

More than 8,000 schools submitted 100-word essays for the competition, with principals, teachers, students and even community members vouching for their local campuses. Lauren Weiss, a spokeswoman for Samsung, said Muniz’s essay and others had been evaluated by a panel of volunteer judges.

This year, she added, the winning schools had a number of new products to choose from, including the plasma televisions and LCD computer monitors.

“These are products that are worth a lot of money, and it’s great to be able to have these kinds of technologies in their schools now,” Weiss said.