FAIRVIEW PARK EDUCATION FOUNDATION AWARDS $7,003 IN GRANTS

FALL 2021 GRANT AWARDS

Fairview Park, Ohio – On December 7, 2021 the Fairview Park Education Foundation Board of Trustees approved $6,109 in grant awards for teachers of the Fairview Park City Schools. The awarded grants:

• $100 has been awarded to Occupational Therapist Monica Owen and School Psychologist Megan Wellman for the purchase of materials to construct weighted lap pads and weighted scarves. These weighted items help children struggling with sensory integration to “integrate the sensory input from the environment” and become more able to participate in academic tasks.

• $720 has been awarded to Gillis-Sweet teachers, Mary Jo Cooper, Jessica Potraffke and Kerry Sheldon for their grant “Story Walk”. This grant will allow for the purchase of books and supplies to create an outdoor story walk for the students and community to enjoy. The story walk consists of pages of a story, in individual panels, placed around the school.

• $1140 has been awarded to Andy Slack and Lori Oxley, Mayer Middle School and Fairview High School teachers for their grant “Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking Skills Challenges”. “The purpose of this project is for students to learn critical thinking skills that can be applied to real world problems and challenges. Additionally, to help students and parents bridge the transitional gap between middle school and high school.” It has several phases; a seminar for students and parents, a field trip to the Escape Room at North Olmsted, the designing of a digital escape room.

• $2649 has been awarded to Graham Codney and Kim Dunlap for a Gillis-Sweet and Mayer Middle School collaboration. Their grant “Sphero Bolt Coding Robot” will enable students to “hone their programming skills, critical thinking, problem solving, logical reasoning, collaboration, communication as well as the design process.”

• $1167 has been awarded to Preschool Intervention Specialist Megan Frenz for her grant “Parkview Playground Communication Board”. This Core Communication Board will allow “the staff and students a way to communicate if they are not able to do so with their verbal words”. A similar communication board is currently being used in the building. This grant will provide a communication board for the playground area.

SPRING 2021 GRANT AWARDS

Fairview Park, Ohio – On May 20, 2021, the Fairview Park Education Foundation Board of Trustees approved $894 in grant awards for teachers of the Fairview Park City Schools. The awarded grants are:

• $199 has been awarded to Matthew Ziemnik, a math teacher at Lewis F. Mayer Middle School and Fairview High School, for “Escape Rooms: There’s No Escaping the Math! (Renewal)”.
This grant will enable additional kits to be purchased to increase student engagement in mathematics through “inquiry, problem-solving and collaboration”.
Escape Rooms provide “a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints, and strategies to complete the objective at hand”.

• $695 has been awarded to Keri Laughlin, Katie Kellner, Samantha Smith, Jill Lackey, and Nicole Crum, the kindergarten teachers at the Early Education Center, for their grant titled, “STEAM: Building for the Future”. This grant will be used to purchase five different materials for the five kindergarten classrooms. The materials consist of small movable pieces, such as blocks. and construction materials, used to solve problems. “Moving and manipulating the small pieces gives young children the ability to develop their fine motor skills, and develop science, technology, engineering, art, and math skills.”

The Fairview Park Education Foundation provides grants for the enrichment of the Fairview Park City Schools for the enrichment of school curriculum, the enhancement of instruction, and the implementation of other appropriate activities to achieve specific education goals. The grants are funded through individual donations and through proceeds from various fundraisers.