District 58 Education Foundation Awards More than $35K in School Grants

A “One School, One Book” reading program, iPads, interactive whiteboards, a middle school initiative called "Rachel’s Challenge," and a digital piano for the district’s music program were among the nearly two dozen grant requests funded by the District 58 Education Foundation for 2012-13.

The grant recipients were recognized at the District 58 Board of Education meeting Monday night.

Altogether the Foundation, which was founded in 2002 to enhance the education of students in District 58 and its 13 schools, gave away more than $35,000 in grants this school year, district officials said. 

The Education Foundation’s grants committee received a total of 35 requests.

To ensure an impartial review, all identifying information regarding the applicant(s), their job title and their school were removed from the applications prior to their distribution to the committee, which was chaired by Stephan Upshaw and also included Foundation President Jay Stocki, Vice President Amy Kovacevic, Board member Laura Taylor, parent John Doyle, District 58 teacher Meg Van Dyke, and District 58 Communications Coordinator and Foundation ex officio Jennie Waldorf.

Grants were awarded this winter for the following projects/purchases (applicants’ names are in parentheses): 

• iPad 2s for Belle Aire (Tara Fulton, first grade and Heather Howland, second grade); El Sierra (Patricia Incrocci and Lindsay Shea, sixth grade; Diane Claver, third grade); Lester (Pat Szczurek, first grade); and Pierce Downer (Sabrina Breault, third grade)

• iPod Touches for El Sierra (Maura Prekwas and Meg Adams, fifth grade)

• Bilingual books for El Sierra’s LRC collection (Mary Loversky, LRC; Cindy Szwed, ELL; and Diane Claver, third grade)

• Gaining Reading Success Through Leveled Literacy Intervention for El Sierra (Megan DuPass, reading specialist) 
  • This is a research-based tool that helps students reach their full potential by using small group reading instruction. The program is designed to prevent literacy difficulties, and focuses on the five important areas of reading: fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, and word work. The Foundation grant allowed the school to purchase the kindergarten-level program. 

• Book Circles: Advancing Social-Emotional Learning Through Literature for Fairmount (Jennifer Rodriguez, social worker)
  •  Book Circles allows students to gain strength in Social-Emotional Learning skills such as social understanding, critical thinking, interpretation and communication skills. K-3 teachers will use classroom Read Aloud time to share specifically selected books, and engage their students in thoughtful discussions. Students will learn to recognize emotions and behaviors of characters and connect them to their own emotions and behaviors; offer insight regarding characters’ situations; brainstorm and collaborate on problem-solving strategies; become more aware of empathy and perspective-taking skills; and celebrate differences among themselves as learners and children.

• From Christofori to Yamaha: Creating Music Through Digital Technology--digital piano for Fairmount (Stephanie Coates, vocal music)
  •  This will be used for a variety of lessons in first through fifth grade, and will give sixth-grade students the opportunity to create, record and share their own compositions using the digital piano and GarageBand software. The instrument will also be used by the orchestra teacher and the Downers Grove Children’s Choir.

• SMART boards for Hillcrest (Brittany Cerny, Meghan Macdonald and Jennifer Matkovich, fourth grade)

• Idea Paint for Indian Trail (Taffy Sanger, LRC Director; and Robin Bruebach, principal)
  •  IdeaPaint turns surfaces, such as desks, tables and walls, into dry-erase boards. Students can use the “whitetables” to collaborate, connect, and discover new ways of learning. Last year the school used five tables to experiment with this learning approach, with great success. The grant money will allow the school to paint one surface in each classroom with IdeaPaint.

• Picture books to model comprehension strategies at Indian Trail (Julie Bianchin, reading specialist; Kathy Tice, third grade; Jen Barriball, fourth grade; and Michelle Maycan, third/fourth grade combination class)

• Sensory center to support students in the Alternative Education Program at Kingsley (Patti Cepeda, AEP teacher, and Michelle Schmidt)
  •  This grant will fund the creation of a sensory space within the classroom program for students receiving services for emotional/behavioral issues. This space will include a variety of equipment to impact students’ sensory, behavioral and emotional regulation throughout the school day, including cushions, a weighted blanket, a hammock and trapeze bar.

• SMART board for Lester (Matthew Leiser, second grade) 

• Sing it to Read it! Karaoke for reading fluency at Lester (Lisa Garbis, reading specialist; Laurie Brennan, fourth grade and Lauren Francis, fifth grade)
  •  Students will gain confidence and increased reading fluency by practicing a passage and then performing it karaoke-style. 

• Building a School Community of Readers: “One Book, One School” reading program at Lester (Carin Novak, principal)
  •  This program will create a shared reading experience for the school community. Every staff member and family will be provided a copy of “The Lemonade War,” by Jacqueline Davies, to read at home and then discuss over the course of a month. During that time, the school will also coordinate a variety of activities to promote and enrich the shared reading experience. 

• Bananagrams Foster Wordplay: Whittier (Debra Krygeris, second grade)
  •  Bananagrams is an anagram game in which players build crossword grids using letter tiles. It can be played in the classroom to augment vocabulary and spelling instruction. 

• A Strong Heart Makes a Strong Mind: heart monitors for Herrick Middle School (P.E. team of Gail Pistello, Chuck Justis, Bill Kilgore, Mary Lueck)
  •  This grant will purchase heart rate monitors for the physical education classes, to increase fitness levels and improve the body mass index of students. At the end of each class, the students will get a report letting them know whether their workout was good enough to strengthen their heart. Over time, students will learn how hard they need to work to strengthen their heart, even when they are not wearing the monitors. The system stores the information throughout the year. 

• Rachel’s Challenge at Herrick Middle School, O’Neill Middle School (O’Neill principal Matt Durbala, Herrick principal Jason Lynde, O’Neill assistant principal Christine Clavenna, Herrick assistant principal Matt Neustadt)
  •  Rachel’s Challenge is a new program put in place at Herrick and O’Neill this school year. According to the Rachel’s Challenge website: Rachel's Challenge is a series of student-empowering programs and strategies that equip students and adults to combat bullying and ally feelings of isolation and despair by creating a culture of kindness and compassion. The programs are based on the writings and life of 17 year-old Rachel Scott, who was the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999.” Both schools have started Friends of Rachel clubs, which are participating in a variety of activities this school year. Visit www.dg58.org for more information.

• Enhancing the classroom library at O’Neill Middle School (Lauren Horn, Nicole Ferroli)

• Differentiated classroom libraries at O’Neill Middle School (Bev West, Addie Nussbaum)

• Material World: Looking at the Global Community for a Deeper Understanding of our Role as World Citizens (Ginny Lauterbach, teacher of the gifted)
  •  By studying photographs of families and their homes/belongings in countries around the world, students will have opportunities to reflect on their place in the global community and gain unique perspectives on world cultures, health, sustainability, globalization and journalism. Participants will include students in District 58’s fourth-grade Extend program, as well as seventh- and eighth-grade students in the Expand Social Studies Seminar program.

Since its inception in 2002, the Foundation has raised and distributed nearly $400,000 to District 58 schools. Funding is made possible via Foundation events and programs such as Entertainment for Education, Cash for Kids and online contributions. 

In addition to the annual grants, programs sponsored by the Foundation include Sneak Preview for seventh-graders, the Select 58 service and citizenship awards for eighth-graders, and the Distinguished Service Awards for staff.

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