Staff reports

Pioneer Elementary School won a $100,000 Stanley Security Safer Schools grant after taking fourth in the company’s nationwide online voting contest.

The grant will help improve safety and security at the 54-year-old Auburn elementary school with Stanley Security installed products and services.

“Thank you so much for your votes and your outreach,” Pioneer Elementary Principal Debra Gary said in a Thursday morning email.

The school hosted a contest appreciation assembly Friday in the gymnasium to thank participants and celebrate its students accomplishments. More than 550 elementary school students, parents, teachers from the school and other local officials, business leaders and Stanley representatives attended.

Contest results were announced Thursday.

Faith Christian Academy of Sellersville, Pa., was the grand prize winner and the recipient of a $200,000 grant.

South Pointe Elementary of Miami Beach, Fla., and Montessori School of Dayton in Kettering, Ohio, joined Pioneer as runners-up, each winning $100,000 in Stanley Security installed products and services.

Pioneer and Auburn’s Mt. Baker Middle School were among the 969 schools that competed for grants.

“Finishing anywhere in the top 10 demonstrates success in this national contest due entirely to our community of supporters,” Gary said. “We appreciate the incredible effort, creativity and tenacity in your outreach. We were not able to predict what our competition would be or how this contest would unfold, but we were determined to stay creatively engaged and try everything we could think of, learning as we went. What we found out is that we have a great community that cares about the safety of children in schools.”

The purpose of the Stanley program is to make communities and schools safer by providing funding opportunities. Stanely Security established The Together for Safer Schools Grant Program last year to help enhance school security through a half-million dollar grant initiative.