A local school is hoping for a $500,000 check after appearing to be among the winners of a Kohl's Department Store contest.
Officials and parents from Chabad Hebrew Academy, a small private school, are anxiously waiting for the official results.
Kohl's Facebook competition was simple: 20 schools with the most votes could each win a $500,000 prize.
Officials at the Chabad Hebrew Academy couldn't be happier with the results.
"This was offered to schools all over the country -- much larger schools -- and we were very, very persistent, and came together and worked very hard to make this happen," said Marci Germain of Chabad Hebrew Academy.
Parents said they visited college campuses, communities, everywhere they could find support, to get the needed votes to get the money, which will be used to improve their school of 300 students in Scripps Ranch.
"All summer long, people were putting it on their Facebook pages, talking about it to their friends," parent Michal Benmoshe said.
Nerves were frayed when, during the final of the competition, the vote count dropped to 19th place.
"When we saw that we were slipping, there was an even bigger push, and more parents took off work, went all over, talked to their friends, called family," Benmoshe said.
Chabad Hebrew Academy was the only San Diego school to finish in the Top 20, with nearly 140,000 votes.
Kohl's released a statement, stating that after it verified that the schools were in compliance with contest rules, it would then release the official results.
Officials at the San Diego academy, however, already have plans on how they will spend the money.
"Our hope is that we can improve our science program and improve out athletic field," Germain said.
It's not surprising to some, though, that with so much money involved, there is some controversy over the contest: On the Kohl's Facebook page, some people have accused schools of buying votes and breaking the rules.
