Bell Atlantic Selects Five West Virginia Schools for WORLD SCHOOL Grants

Bell Atlantic Selects Five West Virginia
Schools for WORLD SCHOOL Grants

Monies to Help Teachers Use Internet for Education

April 27, 1999

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia teachers at four
elementary schools and one middle school will receive funds from the Bell
Atlantic WORLD SCHOOL® Grant Program to help them use the global
resources of the Internet for education.

Since launching the WORLD SCHOOL grants program four years ago,
Bell Atlantic has given over $265,000 to West Virginia schools, $50,000
of which came last year.

The company has allocated $40,000 for WORLD SCHOOL grants in
1999. Over $15,000 of that amount has been disbursed.

The latest grant winners are: Bridgeport Middle School in Bridgeport;
Fairview Elementary School in Fairview (Marion County); Lewisburg
Elementary School in Lewisburg; Maxwell Hill Elementary School in
Beckley, and Washington Irving Middle School in Clarksburg.

"Today's classroom is no longer limited to four walls and a
blackboard," said Dennis Bone, president and CEO of Bell Atlantic -
West Virginia. "The world is now the classroom, and schools must
be able to communicate globally. No one knows this better than the
teachers who applied for these grants. We at Bell Atlantic applaud them
for their innovative spirit."

Bridgeport Middle School will receive a grant of $3,415 to
purchase software to expand Internet access for students and teachers.
Using the Internet, students will create a Millennium Scrapbook that
documents significant events of the twentieth century. The teacher is Jan
Frenzel.

Fairview Elementary School is awarded $620 to help support
student's participating in the "Great Backyard Bird Count"
program. The students will observe and record bird activity daily in a
local park. Their reports will be added to the Bird Count site on the
Internet. The funds will be used to purchase reference material and
necessary field equipment. The teacher is Mary Harker.

Lewisburg Elementary School will receive a grant of $950 to
buy equipment to allow students to collect material from the better
educational sites on the Internet and download the material onto CD-
ROMs. The winning teacher is Devon Raddish.

Maxwell Hill Elementary School is awarded a grant of $2,230
to buy equipment and software that allows homework assignments to be
scanned and posted on the Internet as electronic forms. This will allow
physically challenged students to complete homework assignments by
keying in the answers on on-line forms.

Washington Irving Middle School is awarded $1,345 for the
purchase of wireless weather station equipment. Students will share and
publish data on local weather activity. They will also use the Internet to
research global weather patterns.

Bell Atlantic plans to award a total of $40,000 in WORLD SCHOOL
grants in 1999. Additional winners will be announced throughout the
year.

Educators can learn more about these and other projects by accessing the
WORLD SCHOOL site on the World Wide Web. The Web address for
WORLD SCHOOL is http://www.wvaworldschool.org.

In addition to providing financial support for schools through the WORLD
SCHOOL Grant Program, Bell Atlantic 's WORLD SCHOOL project has
helped nearly 700 public and private schools in West Virginia get high-
speed digital Internet access. Teachers in all public and private schools
served by Bell Atlantic - West Virginia are eligible to submit applications
for the WORLD SCHOOL grant program.

The company awards individual WORLD SCHOOL grants of up to
$4,000. A panel of education leaders and Bell Atlantic employees judges
all grant proposals. Grant money cannot be used to purchase tariffed
telephone services or hardware, such as computer monitors, hard disk
drives, printers or liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.

Educators can obtain applications on the WORLD SCHOOL grants
program by calling the Bell Atlantic - West Virginia public relations office
at 1-800-642-8206.

The Bell Atlantic Foundation supports a variety of projects domestically
and internationally, with an emphasis on new technology applications in
education, health and human services, the arts and humanities, and civic
development in the communities served by Bell Atlantic. For more
information, visit www.bellatlanticfoundation.com on the Internet.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and
information industry. With 43 million telephone access lines and nine
million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are
premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market
leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory
information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest
investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations
and investments in 23 countries.