Fairview Park Education Foundation Announces Spring 2016 Grant Awards

On May 19, 2016, the Fairview Park Education Foundation Board of Trustees approved $3,938 in grant awards for teachers and staff of the Fairview Park City Schools. The awarded grants included:

• $350 awarded to Chrissy Karliak in order for the Chorale and Show Choir students at Fairview High School to participate in the “Discovering the Performing Arts for High School Students” program offered by PlayhouseSquare. This program is designed to allow “high school students to deepen their understanding and experience of the performing arts through engaging workshops led by actors, choreographers, and other professional artists. Representatives from local universities present information to students interested in pursuing the performing arts at the collegiate level.”
• $129 awarded to Elizabeth Loescher at the Early Education Center to purchase a complete set of Can Do! Science Discovery Kits. These kits will help Pre-K students explore and experiment with new ways to learn while also supplementing the redesign of Ms. Loescher’s classroom to comply with the ECCERT guidelines for the Step Up to Quality classroom assessment.
• $490 awarded to Meredith Schulte at Gilles-Sweet Elementary School for a project entitled “Family Resource Bags.” Ms. Schulte will use the grant funds to purchase books, workbooks, and other resources focused on topics and experiences students K-5 commonly face, i.e., anxiety, discipline, emotional needs of gifted children, social skills. These resources will be organized into topic-specific bags that families will be able to borrow. These Family Resource Bags are designed to improve parental knowledge and awareness of student challenges.
• $255 awarded to Diane Ward at Gilles-Sweet Elementary School for a project entitled “By the Light of the Drinking Gourd.” Ms. Ward will use the grant funds to bring the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Portable Planetarium to the Gilles-Sweet library. This tool will be used as a visual aid to facilitate elementary-level conversations about stars that will segue into a discussion about how slaves used stars to guide themselves to freedom. Elements of the book Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeannette Winter will be used to highlight how escaping slaves used stars to flee north.
• $921 awarded to Samantha Smith and the Kindergarten team at the Early Education Center to purchase a set of Imagination Playground blocks. These blocks will be part of an Exploration Room being created for Kindergarten students. Specifically, the blocks are designed to encourage child-directed free play, which produces a variety of functional and academic benefits.
• $1,045 awarded to Matt Dunlap, Chris Kaminski, and Ryan Graff to purchase accessories for a laser cutter that will be available to students in the new Innovation Center at Fairview High School/Lewis F. Mayer Middle School. This grant award will supplement a significant investment made by the Fairview Park City Schools. The Innovation Center, opening in the 2016-17 school year, will be a creative space where art and engineering intersect that provides students with materials and tools to design and make things.
• $348 awarded to Annie Clouse at Lewis F. Mayer Middle School to purchase supplies for a new “MMS Makers of the Month” program. This program will showcase and celebrate students in grades 6-8 who model creativity, ingenuity, and artistic merit that is recognized by their peers. The program is intended to increase pride and the perceived value of using creative making as a method of problem solving.
• $400 awarded to Maggie Arbogast and Meredith Schulte to bring a dance and movement workshop to Gilles-Sweet Elementary School. The workshop, designed to inspire girls to find positive outlets for their emotions and help them build confidence and better relationships among girls, will be offered during the 2016-17 school year as part of the Kind Committee program. The Kind Committee is targeted at female empowerment and works with elementary-aged girls to become kinder to themselves, find constructive strategies for dealing with negative social behavior, and identify positive female remodels.

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

Click here for a list of all grants awarded in 2016.