Grant Elementary School

26 Honor Students on a ‘Roll’ in Passaic

Receive Bicycles, Helmets for Making the Grades

Passaic, NJ (June 23, 2004) – Twenty-six honor roll students at Grant Elementary School #7 received bicycles and safety helmets as rewards for their achievements during a community event coordinated by New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation (SCC), which is funding and managing a $6.3 million expansion of the city educational facility.
SCC Project Officer Nick Carcich and school Principal Maria Garcia Kenney arranged the giveaway to recognize the academic status of the students – each also received Principal’s Awards at the event – and to mark the progress of construction at the school at Summer Street and Myrtle Avenue. The project includes the addition of eight pre-Kindergarten classrooms, a new gym and cafeteria and renovations of the facility.

Ms. Kenney identified the students based on their academic performance. Carcich rounded up the bicycles, which Bike Land of Chatham generously reconditioned for free, and Bovis Lend Lease, the regional Project Management Firm, donated bicycle helmets.
The honor students who rolled away on their shiny bikes at the June 23rd event include: Laura Yang, Emmanuel Lozano, Denise Sanchez, Angelica Torres, David Gutierrez, Solange Casiano, Maria Lopez, Jensel Feliciano, Fernando Leyva, Karina Garcia, Naftaly Hiraldo, Tamar Hendez, Aaron Ramales, Ashley Velasquez, Ahmir Glover, Isaiah Mitchell, Adriana Garcia, Katherine Rodriguez, Lilbeth Marquez, Aadriana Powel, Chidera White and Najee Green.

Approaching its second birthday, SCC has hundreds of school construction projects under way and is making tremendous progress in fulfilling the visionary goal of Governor James E. McGreevey, who initiated SCC in July 2002 to streamline the building of quality schools statewide. SCC is responsible for implementing an $8.6 billion school building program – the largest public construction program ever undertaken by the State of New Jersey, and one of the largest programs of its type ever undertaken in the nation.