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MEDIA RELEASE JANUARY 13, 2005Foundation Awards $2,970 Grant to WW-P Schools to Purchase Asthma Pulse Oximeters The West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation, Inc. has awarded a special grant to the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District. The grant, in the amount of $2,970, will allow the district to purchase pulse oximeters for seven of the WW-P schools that currently do not have one in the nurse’s office. The WW-P Education Foundation already has purchased pulse oximeters for three schools through its mini-grant program, and this special grant ensures that all ten schools in the regional school district will have this important and life-saving equipment. This special Education Foundation grant increases the ability of the WW-P schools to effectively manage students with asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Pulse oximeters are used to assess treatment, determine when to give additional medication, or when a child’s asthma has become unstable. It is also helpful in deciding whether a child should be allowed to return to class, be sent home, or be immediately sent to a physician. Pulse oximetry monitoring plays an important role in the management of students with asthma and other respiratory illnesses. It measures the amount of oxygen in the blood and the heart rate at any given time and is an objective way to determine a child’s state of respiratory health; it is more reliable than listening for wheezing with a stethoscope. Moira Jean Coluccio, school nurse at Wicoff Elementary School, working with Cynthia Jenkins, school nurse at Maurice Hawk Elementary School and nursing coordinator for the school district, prepared a grant application to purchase an oximeter for Wicoff School. “It was this grant application and the fact that the Foundation had purchased pulse oximeters for three other schools in the past that the Foundation decided to purchase this equipment for all of the schools in the district that needed them” said Denise Dwyer, Education Foundation President. Asthma is one of the most common chronic illnesses of childhood, affecting more than 3 million children in the United States alone. Asthma and allergies are a leading cause of school absenteeism accounting for more than 125 million lost school days per year. The impact of these conditions is seen in the school nurse‘s office. The West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation, Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the continued excellence of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional Schools. Founded in 1995, the foundation has awarded over $131,000 in grants for more than 175 innovative projects in the schools.
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