Foundation awards $24,500 in teacher grants

The lives of hundreds of students in Pittsburg Community School District will be positively impacted by 35 grants totaling $24,500 given by the USD 250 Foundation in a ceremony Wednesday afternoon at Pittsburg High School.

“This event allows us to publicly honor the educators receiving teacher grants this year, while also expressing our sincere appreciation to the individuals and businesses whose generosity made these grants possible,” said Foundation President Jon Bartlow.

Bartlow, who grew up in a family of teachers and is married to a teacher, expressed gratitude to the group for their dedication to students and their innovation in the classroom. 

The Foundation began its teacher grant program in 2008. Fundraising comes from Match Week and from the annual fundraiser Night of Dragons, which this year is planned for Feb. 27 at Camptown Event Center; reservations and sponsorships are being accepted until Feb. 20. [Buy here]

To date, the Foundation has awarded $260,759 in teacher grants to innovative teachers at all four public elementary schools, Pittsburg Community Middle School, and Pittsburg High School.

“This funding gives teachers the resources they need to help students reach new levels of achievement, curiosity, creativity, and involvement,” Bartlow said.

This year, sponsorship by the Class of 1978 for one of the teacher grants helped stretch dollars further.

The Foundation also paid tribute to PHS special education teacher Heather Burgess, who died on Jan. 24 from injuries sustained in a car wreck on Jan. 17. She was a multi-year Foundation grant recipient who had been chosen for one again this year. 

“She was always the first one to apply,” said grant committee head Kelynn Heardt. “She was so excited about what these grants could mean to improve the lives of her students.”

Her grant will be awarded to the other inclusion resource teachers at PHS for decodable books for students. 

“She wrote in her grant application that these resources will help increase reading skills and help build confidence in these students that will transfer to all areas of their lives,” Heardt said.

 Grant recipients, grouped by school, are as follows:

George Nettels

• Christina McCleary for a state assessment improvement initiative

• Whitney Rogers for continuing the container garden initiative

Lakeside

• Brendan Finley for a kindergarten reading skills initiative

• Missy Vacca and Melina Lawson for high-quality, research-based literacy materials to support 70 students

• Michelle Wheeler for a state assessment improvement initiative

• Hannah Anderson for novels to supplement the fifth grade and SFA Science and Social Studies units.

Meadowlark

• Tracy Coke, Neely Evans, and Amy Smith for an 11-book series, Blackthorn Stables, designed to support young readers —especially those who are developing foundational reading skills or who may have dyslexia.

• Elysha Manns for a bilingual library collection of Spanish-English “easy reader” books that approximately 80 ESOL students and families can check out and enjoy together

• Kayla Campbell for portable geomorphology models (1 per classroom) to teach the science of erosion

• Angie Bolinger, Jamie Newcomb, Sarah Parrish for Really Great Reading word work kits to help build literacy skills in kindergarteners

• Kayla Semmel and Christine Robinson for writing resources to help struggling writers

• Becky Bedene for a state assessment improvement initiative 

• Kortney Rush for the Secret Stories phonics program to accelerate student reading performance.

Westside

• Andrea Moss for the Secret Stories phonics program to accelerate student reading performance.

• Dale May for education support material including STEM kits and advanced critical-thinking games to strengthen student learning.

• Kathryn Hughes and Rachel Southard for curriculum materials for early pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade to strengthen literacy skills and close gabs in early reading.

• Kelsey Boulware for a state assessment improvement initiative

Pittsburg Community Middle School

• Kim O’Bray for current, relevant, high-interest non-fiction books for the library that would support school science, social science, math, and electives curricula.

• John Laflen for equipment and resources to improve the craftsmanship and safety of projects in construction courses

• James Cameron, Christy Watt, and Jordan Woods for golf launch simulators and PE equipment

• Erica Martin and Monica Laforte for enrichment travel

• Michelle Fowler to create an audio book classroom library that would provide access to grade-level texts for students with disabilities.

• Melodee Knopp and Ashlei Bockover for equipment in support of their Seeing the Sound science project

Pittsburg High School

• Sheila Sandford for classrooms sets of books for a reading initiative called The Martian Project to improve science and literacy 

• Anita Walker for resources to connect literacy skills to health content, including physical models, field trips, and a centralized resource kit.

• Juli Holland and Lijun Zhu for enrichment travel to museums and cultural experiences

• Nicole Foster for improved equipment for students creating commercials, videos, and portraits in Media Production classes

• Anna Gudde and Morgan Westervelt for marketing and business texts that provide real-world insights into modern marketing strategies, customer experience, and brand development

• Ronda Ison for innovative magazine subscriptions to support students below reading level

• Ryan Thies for laser manufacturing — funded by the Class of 1978 through the 250 Foundation

• Carrie Shattuck-Wilcox for materials to support a small business project for her consumer math students

• Jill Kangas for headphones with a microphone that will allow students to utilize text-to-speech and speech-to-text

• Steve Seeley for improved field biology and ecology equipment to allow for field surveys.

• Aubry Ross for a class set of the book “Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults” to strengthen students' literacy and critical-thinking skills, blending science and reading

 All elementaries: 

• field trips ($500 each)

Total: $24,500

“Think about the number of students these educators impact each day and the creative, meaningful work happening in our classrooms,” Bartlow said. “This funding helps expand that work, thanks to the generosity of our donors and community.”

More details and photos of the grant projects will be shared in coming months on the Foundation’s Facebook page at @usd250foundation and website at usd250foundation.org.