A boost for Hispanic kids

Educators and business supporters hope new child-sized, brightly colored work stations, computers and programs will help Hispanic students consider career fields of math, science and technology.

Mort Elementary School was the first Hillsborough County public school to receive the computers, which are part of a $2 million national initiative by IBM. The company plans to provide 1,000 computers and curriculum to schools and nonprofit organizations whose populations served are more than 40 percent Hispanic.

The Hillsborough Education Foundation was one of 13 groups nationally receiving the grant, with 50 computers to be distributed to 14 county schools for use with the Hillsborough Reads program. Hillsborough Reads is an AmeriCorps tutoring program. The Hillsborough County Head Start program also will receive 19 of the educational systems under a different grant.

In an Oct. 7 ceremony with district administration and IBM representatives, Mort officials accepted four computer stations from the education foundation. The school's Head Start program will get two.

"We feel very fortunate," said Beny Peretz, principal of the school at 1806 E. Bearss Ave.

Janell Ray, of IBM's Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs Department, said that in May 2008, IBM held an America's Competitiveness summit on educational issues.

"Something that rose to the top was that Hispanic children are not being serviced. We felt that was something we could assist," Ray said.

The IBM Kid Smart Early Learning Center, with a workstation constructed by Little Tykes, is designed for children ages 3 to 7.

The IBM computer is loaded with five Young Explorers programs focusing on math, telling time, reading, science and nature materials, and repetition of sounds. The workstations are valued at nearly $2,600 each.

About 600 students in the Hillsborough Reads program and hundreds more in the Head Start program will use the 69 learning centers.