The AEF Board of Directors recently approved grants totaling >$19,000.

Thanks to all educators who applied and congratulations to the recipients!

A perk of being an AEF Board Member is that you get to go into the schools and hand grant checks directly to teachers, speech pathologists, paraprofessionals, principals, and others who wrote successful applications. These school visits are often highlights of board members’ years of service.

This grant delivery season was no different. Board members received hugs and saw teachers crying and jumping for joy!

Following is a listing of all grants awarded. Funding came from the Appleton Education Foundation Fund – an unrestricted endowment – unless otherwise noted.

Appleton Area School District –

• $1,500 to support a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) Exhibit to be held at UW-Fox Valley: small problems/Big Trouble. This is a collaborative exhibit between UW-Fox Valley painter Judith Waller and James A. Brey, educational director, American Meteorology Society. AASD high school students will exhibit both an art piece and scientific text panel focusing on environmental and climate issues, mirroring the Waller/Brey exhibit. The goal is to foster a cross disciplinary approach to art and science and to enhance awareness of environmental issues.

• $1,500 to bring award-winning author Linda Sue Parks to visit with AASD students in April. Her book, “A Long Walk to Water,” is a district-wide read.

• $1,400, from the AEF Fund and Co-Curricular Endowment, to support three basketball clinics for elementary students with special needs. Student athletes from AASD high schools will lead the clinics. The high school student mentors will learn best practices for adapted athletics ahead of time to ensure younger students have the greatest possible experience.

• $378 from the Betsy Melzer Endowment Fund to support sensory integration for early childhood special education students.

Appleton Bilingual Charter School – $422 to support a project between ABCS students and students in El Salvador.

Appleton Public Montessori – $411 to purchase supplies for APM’s school-based bakery. Sixth-grade students work at the bakery and gain teamwork skills, as well as experience counting change, estimating expenses, and determining profit.

Berry Elementary School – $1,500 to bring in singer/songwriter Randy Peterson for a week-long residency. Peterson will address creative writing, musical performance, and the school’s Positive Behavior Intervention Supports initiatives.

$500 – from the Betsy Melzer Endowment Fund to fund a reading program for students with disabilities.

Columbus Elementary School – $499 to purchase the computer game MinecraftEdu. The game will help students learn digital citizenship, ethics, and etiquette – all lessons that will be transferred to daily life.

$463 from the Connie Pitt Memorial Ednowment Fund to purchase a social skills curriculum, S’cool Moves, to help teach social skills to students with the highest need.

East High School – $640 from the Heffron Family Endowment Fund to purchase Android tablets and accessories to increase independent reading among struggling readers. Students will be able to read and listen to the book simultaneously.

$500 to support alumna Michelle Seipel’s work with East choir students. Seipel is a New York City-based performing artist. A joint concert will be held in March.

East High School, Einstein Middle School & Madison Middle School – $1,000 to bring Corey Etchberger to Appleton to speak with middle and high school students. Etchberger’s father is a Medal of Honor recipient. The “Medal of Honor Character Development Program” instills the concepts of citizenship, character building, and having the courage to do what is right.

Einstein Middle School – $1,500 for a guest artist and supplies for students to create a story, depict the story in clay tiles, create and glaze the tiles, and install the work in the school’s recently renovated LMC.

Fox River Academy – $1,053 for special tool kits students will use on biweekly environmental field trips.

Highlands and Odyssey Elementary Schools – $399 from the Betsy Melzer Endowment Fund to purchase an iPad for use by the school’s speech language pathologist during speech therapy sessions.

Houdini Elementary School – $300 to bring a Lawrence University drumming group to Houdini for a presentation to third-grade students who will have studied Japan and its art forms in a social studies lesson.

Huntley Elementary School – $1,219 to implement the Recess Buddies program. Students in grades fifth and sixth grades will learn leadership skills as they model positive social play and help teach games to students in grades K-4.

Jefferson Elementary School – $489 from the AEF Fund and Heffron Family Endowment Fund to purchase the Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program. This program will be used in speech-language sessions with students who have reading decoding and comprehension challenges.

McKinley Elementary School – $1,500 to purchase a portable amplification system for use in a fourth-grade classroom and for school assemblies. It is expected that McKinley’s diverse student population, including many students who are learning English, will benefit from the increased volume of teacher voices.

$1,240 from the Betsy Melzer Endowment Fund and Heffron Family Endowment Fund to provide various tools to be used by students with sensory processing or modulation needs.

North High School – $442 to support the literature circles concept where science students will read recently published literature concerning hot science topics. Titles include, “Poisoner’s Handbook,” “Parasite Rex,” and “Disappearing Spoon.”

West High School – $170 from the Betsy Melzer Endowment Fund to support a trip for eleventh-grade students with learning disabilities to see “The Great Gatsby” at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center.

AASD educators applied for these grants through AEF’s biannual competitive grant process. The next grant deadline is Friday, April 10 at 4 p.m.

Learn more about the grant application process.