The $1 million check came as a surprise.

It was delivered to the Dumont School District’s Board of Education in New Jersey this year at the bequest of Genevieve Via Cava, a former special needs teacher, seven years after she died at the age of 89.

In accordance with her will, the money will fund scholarships for special needs students who want to pursue postsecondary education.

“I wasn’t surprised that she was going to be donating something,” the Dumont school superintendent, Emanuele Triggiano, said — after all, she had told him she would.

“The surprise was the amount of money she sent to us.”

He said that the money would provide scholarships of up to $25,000 for one or more students annually, starting with next year’s high school graduates, and that it was set up so that the $1 million would generate enough interest for the scholarship to continue in perpetuity.