Lafayette Elementary in Long Beach puts $100K grant into action with new tech

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- Students and staff at Lafayette Elementary School in Long Beach celebrated their newly built media center, two years after receiving a $100,000 grant from Farmers Insurance.

"Technology is the pen and paper of today's learning," Katherine Tacea, a teacher at the school, said.

In 2015, she was awarded the grant from the Farmer's Dream Big Teacher Challenge.

"It's really bringing devices into the hands of kids when and where they need it the most - for us, it's in the classroom," Tacea said.

The grant allowed the school to buy more than 200 iPads and Google Chromebooks to help prepare students for the future.

"Many of them do not have internet access at home, nor devices. So it really is a moral imperative as an educator to provide that platform," Tacea said. "Test scores for sure have increased, but it's beyond the test scores - it's really making them ready for today's world."

Farmers Insurance district manager Dave Gamble was showered with thank you cards from students and said he was thrilled to see the grant in action.

"These kids and generations of kids to come will benefit from not just the technology, but the infrastructure they've put in place at this school," Gamble said.