The Community Trust of Otago has donated $120,000 to the Otago Secondary Principals Association as part of its February round of funding.
The money will be used to buy video-conferencing equipment for 12 urban secondary schools in Dunedin and on the Taieri.
Principals association secretary Gordon Wilson said video-conferencing facilities would allow the schools to take distance out of the learning equation by allowing them to combine classes and work more closely together in teaching and in other areas.
An earlier donation by the trust also permitted Otago's rural secondary schools to buy video-conferencing equipment.
They have been using a programme called OtagoNet, which gives pupils access to teaching in subjects in small classes and also provides teachers with improved professional development opportunities.
Mr Wilson said the association was appreciative of the donation and it was hoped the 12 urban schools would have the programme in place by the end of this year.
Trust chief executive officer Keith Ellwood said the Otago Secondary Schools Principals Association was one of 32 organisations to receive $342,600 in donations from the February round of funding.
Other large donations were a $50,000 grant to the Fortune Theatre for its 2008 programme of productions and a $25,000 donation to Kati Huirapa Runaka Ki Puketeraki marae towards the second stage of its project to adorn a marae near Karitane.
A donation of $25,000 also went to the Taieri Golf Club, $15,000 to St Mary's Mornington Anglican Church, $10,000 to the Southern Opera Charitable Trust and $7500 to the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand's Historical Records Committee.
Smaller donations: Alexandra Community Youth Trust ($4000); Allan Grange Golf Club (Balclutha) ($2000); Clutha Country Music Club ($2500); Order of St John, Balclutha ($10,000); Arts Foundation of NZ, Dunedin ($2500); Cosy Dell Tennis Club ($15,000); Dunedin City Council Playground Development ($5000); ESOL Home Tutor Dunedin Inc ($1500); Halfway Bush Kindergarten ($4000) Halogen Foundation NZ ($5000); id Dunedin Fashion Inc Society ($5000); NZ Secondary Students Choir ($2500); Otago Peninsula Museum and Historical Society Inc ($3500); Port Chalmers Golf Club ($6500); Pregnancy Help Inc, Dunedin ($1000); Southern Gymnastics Academy ($1000); Stage Challenge Foundation ($4500); Youthline Otago Inc ($5000); Outram Public Library ($500); North Otago Indoor Bowls Association Inc, Oamaru ($2500) Oamaru Multisport Club ($600); Southern Consume Network Trust, Oamaru ($500); SuperGrans Oamaru Charitable Trust ($2000); Upper Clutha Historical Record Society, Wanaka ($2500); Wanaka Community Toy Library Inc ($1000).
