Grants help kids at five city schools

David Handschuh/New York Daily News The School by the Sea took home the biggest prize — a $ 10,000 check from the Municipal Credit Union. The city teachers union will match the award, which will help fix classrooms damaged by superstorm Sandy.

Some wanted computers. Others wanted libraries. Others wanted chemistry labs. Others sought new furniture.

Students from 61 city schools submitted videos asking for grants to buy classroom materials and tools to aid their lessons in the “Build a Better School” contest sponsored by the Municipal Credit Union.

Of those schools, four won grants of $ 5,000 from MCU, matched by another $ 5,000 provided by the city teachers union, which hosted an awards ceremony for the program Monday at its Manhattan headquarters.

A fifth school won a grant of $ 10,000 from MCU, plus another $ 10,000 from the union.

“We judged them on the basis of need, creativity, collaboration and community,” said MCU vice president for business development Corey Fernandes. “Our goal is to bring awareness to our city schools and help kids work together.”

The program, executed in partnership with the teachers union, the principals union, the City University of New York, the Department of Education and the Daily News, is open to middle schools and high schools and will continue next year.

Kids from the Brooklyn Transition School asked for money to build a greenhouse and outdoor furniture. Students at the Haverford School in Staten Island asked for a grant to pay for a weather station at their school. Kids from Frederick Douglass Academy III in the Bronx and Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School sought money for science labs and computers.

All those schools got their wish, but the biggest winner of the event was the School by the Sea, of Far Rockaway, Queens, where $ 20,000 will help fix classrooms destroyed by superstorm Sandy.

“It’s amazing that we’re getting this kind of help at our school,” said eighth-grader Kevonna Philibert. “This will go a long way to fix things.”

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